Mellow Town Stories: Town of the Dead
by TheFoolOfTheNoon
Summary: My name is Nacho the "Masked Mayor of Mellow" and I've been gone from my town for a while like many times before. During one of these trips I came to learn of the kidnappings that took place in other towns. At first I pay no mind to this, but when my town came on the news I knew I had to get back to the town I call home. Paring(Mayor X Ankha) other pairings may appear if properiate
1. Prologue

Prologue: Dark Night

Author's note: Well here's another story by yours truly. This time involving the cast of animal crossing or rather the characters that live in my town. Other characters may appear in my story, so who knows maybe your favorite character will show up. OC's will only be my Mayor and possible other character in order to help progress the story. For those who don't know I have another story called "Masks Lie and Nightmares Never Die" this is my first story which I hope you also read and enjoy as well.

Character list (More may be added depending on progress):

Mayor Nacho "The Masked Mayor"

Ankha

Copper

Harriet

 _ **Tragic Fun fact: I lost the save data on my animal crossing before making this story, so it was awkward trying to make this story from new data. Of course in turn I wouldn't start a new game until I get my favorite villager back; Ankha.**_

 _ **p.s**_

 _ **I got her back.**_

/

Nacho's POV

"Are you sure you want to go mayor?" asked the train driver with worried eyes. "I mean you heard what happened there right?"

"If I hadn't I wouldn't be asking you to take me there" I said with a somber tone.

"Your funeral pal, but you do know once I drop you off there I ain't coming back. The railways leading to your town will be shut down as well a few other towns." He still looked at me with a face concern in an attempt to dissuade me, but it was in vain at this point my mind is set.

"Then will I longer be a bother to you"

The driver sighed in frustration, but opened the doors to the train anyway "Get in…" he said simply as he entered the train and took his position. I silently followed him in and took a seat. "It's gonna take a few hours before we get there, so I hope you dead set mind is focused on what's waiting for you there"

I didn't respond, and he noticed this. Before I knew it the train started moving and we were off once again to the town of Mellow, but unlike my previous trips to the town this isn't happy reunion with friends.

/

An hour has passed and obviously I was left with nothing, but my thoughts. I still remember how I came to learn of the kidnappings of villagers from different towns. I was on another out of town trips which is something I need to cut down on. I mean by this point I'm neglecting my own town and those who inhabit it. Poor Isabelle I really need to give her a vacation I mean she's too nice for own good. Then there are the villagers who lived in my town I was surprised how easily I became friends with them despite the fact they mistook me for their new mayor. In short I'm worried about everybody who lived in my town, but the one who sticks out in my mind the most is the Egyptian cat Ankha.

Ankha is one of the first villagers I met when I first came to town and honestly we hit it off very well. Before I knew it we became the closest of friends and possibly even more. Knowing that she could be in trouble had me on edge. Though during my time visiting her house she told me she had secret rooms which one of them was her bedroom. Honestly this surprised me since to me I could only see one room in her house, but at the same time it made sense I mean where the heck she was going to sleep anyway? Her throne? I remember she once invited to me to check out said room, but I politely declined though I swear I saw her blush when she said it. If the kidnappings did struck my town I'm sure she'll be safe.

Speaking of the kidnappings…Like I said before I learned of these kidnappings while I was on one of my out of town trips. Apparently strange creatures have appeared and started taking villagers from their homes. There wasn't much details on the creatures themselves, but I remember during the report that one villager managed to escape from her town when it happened. According to her she thought she saw her own best friend kidnapping himself, but the only difference between the two is the one kidnapping him looked "Corpsey" she also reported that other "Corpsey" looking villagers she have never met also were kidnapping her friends. A few other towns were also reported to suffer a similar fate my town included. My town was just hit by this recently, so according to officials the strange creatures may have not left the area yet. To me this good news that means whatever is kidnapping the villagers haven't caught everybody yet. Hopefully they manage to evacuate, but knowing the world he may lost a few friends already.

*Sigh* "I just hope I'm not too late" I checked the left pocket of my jacket which revealed my only method of self-defense; a red-9 / Mauser C96 pistol. I only have three ten rounds clips with me so I have to make them count, but thankfully I have all sorts of weapons stored in the basement of my house which is a benefit from my travels. Nothing bad normally in my town at least nothing that required violence, but it was nice to have them just in case.

For once I have nothing left to think about and all I have left to do now is wait until I get home, and hopefully get to the bottom of this mess.

/

Two more hours pass as I finally felt the train stop and the doors open. "Final stop Town of Mellow please disembark now" I heard the driver said. I sat up from my chair and walked towards the open door, but before I finally stepped out of the train I looked at the driver a simply said "Thank you…" The driver only tip his hat in acknowledgment as I step out of the train. As soon as I did I heard the doors to the train close behind me with train soon leaving afterwards. Once the train left I took out one of the clips for my gun and loaded it as take my first step to a place I used to call home "Looks like it's going to be a long night…"

/

My first thought is to check the town hall hopefully Isabelle is okay, but I had my doubts. Along the way I checked other villager's houses, but what I found nearly killed my hopes. The houses I checked were broken into with the doors ripped off their hinges and furniture thrown all over the place. Also in some of the houses there was traces blood which doesn't bode well for the owners of each house. "Kiki…Derwin…Chow…"I mumbled under my breath as I moved away from the houses and onto the front entrance of the town hall. My heart immediately sank; one of the doors was nearly broken off its hinges. I ran inside only to find the place a mess with papers scattered all over the floor. The one thing that caught my eye as I examined the room was a hair band on the lying on the floor, but it wasn't any normal hair band; it was adorned with two bells on it.

"Shit…They taken Isabelle as well. I hope Digby doesn't blame me for this" I placed the hair band in my jacket's pocket, but then I heard a moan coming from outside. I froze in place waiting to hear another noise, but all I got is the sound of the door slowly creaking open behind me. Needing no further prompt I turned around quickly and aimed my gun at the intruder "If you have any sort of reasoning stop where you are or else you're going to be noticeably shorter"

The creature however did not stop walking towards me and as soon I saw its face which resembled a corpse I pulled the trigger and shot it straight through the head. Imagine my shock when the blood that leaked out of it was green and as soon as the creature fell to the floor dead its body dissolved into nothing. "That's…different" Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to examine what's left of the creature when I heard a scream and gunfire that wasn't my own. "Copper…" I immediately ran out the town hall and towards the source of the noise.

/

"Argh!" I heard Copper yell in pain as I made my way towards him and whoever he was protecting. After a few more gunshots and a monstrous roar I finally got to him and found out whom he was protecting; it was Harriet. "Copper!" I yelled as I gained the twos attention. I When I got to them I took in the scene before me. Copper was lying on the ground bleeding from his shoulder with a green puddle next to him.

"Mayor!?" They both exclaimed in shock.

"Crap Copper are you okay?" I asked them, but immediately regretted it. "Er never mind…bad question"

"It's alright sir I'm just glad your okay" he said with a pained look.

"Copper fill me in on the situation" I saw him clutch his shoulder it must be worst than it looks. He's going to need some first aid.

"Sir! They came by nightfall, I didn't know what they where it was like a horror movie coming to life"

"Did anyone manage to evacuate?"

"Few of the villagers and everyone in the shopping district manage to escape, but Kiki, Derwin, Chow, and Ankha weren't among the evacuees. I also heard Isabelle stayed behind as well"

"Why is Harriet here?"

"She insisted on staying behind and helping me find the others"

"Well you tried your best officer…" I said with down expression.

"No… you mean"

"Kiki, Derwin, Chow and Isabelle have been taken already"

"What about Ankha?" I heard Harriet asked.

"I'm confident she has a good hiding spot, and I know where to find it"

"Then we're coming with you"

"No don't act tough Copper whatever attacked you wounded you. Harriet here take the key to my house have a first aid pack in the basement. Take Copper there and treat his wounds I'll find Ankha myself" They first looked at me worried eye until I showed them I was armed after that Harriet sling Copper's other arm over her shoulder and with a word of caution left for my home.

"Ankha…" In hindsight I properly should have went to her house first since it was close to the train station, but I guess I put a lot of faith in her secret rooms. I just hope I don't underestimate those things intelligence in finding her secret rooms. Wasting no time I took off in the direction of her home.

When I got there I heard noises coming from her house. It also didn't help that her door was also ripped off its hinges. "Oh boy…I'm doing these things a favor" If Ankha could see what these things have done to her house she would tear them apart.

/

Ankha's POV

Grrr I can't believe that those things are destroying my home! I would've taken care of them myself, but…I don't know how many are up there. Four…five…six? Also my weapons are in another room which can only be accessed through the main room the only room I can access through my bedroom is the bathroom, and really…that doesn't have much use in my current situation. Furthermore my curses and hexes aren't going to do much to things that are already dead at least I think they're dead.

"To think in the many years of my eternal life I would end up being a damsel in distress"

I sighed; I wasn't sure how to get out of this mess I don't think anyone knows I'm here. For once in a long time I again felt the feeling of hopelessness.

*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

The sound of gunshots broke me from my thoughts. Copper? Was my first thought, for the canine is the only law enforcement in town who owns a firearm. As with the same number of shots heard I heard five bodies fell to the floor.

"Ankha?" I felt my heart stop for a brief moment when I heard that voice. I didn't think he'll be here last time I checked he was on another week long trip not schedule to come back till next week.

"Ankha it's okay to come out now I got rid of those things" I heard him shout. Not wasting time I pressed stone button on a nearby wall opening up a stair case that led to the main room. Without a thought I ran up the stairs to meet one of the handful of people I liked; my best friend.

"Little N!" I yelled as I ran up to him and pulled him into a hug.

"It's nice to see you too Ankha" I heard him reply as he returned the hug.

We stayed liked for a short moment before breaking away from each other. That's when I got a good look him. He was still wearing his white tuxedo outfit though it seemed that blood of those things he killed sprayed a bit on him, for I noticed spots of green on his clothes. Though, he seemed to have added a jacket to his usual wear, it was simple grey zipper jacket that's only defining feature is the number of pockets on it. His face while not the handsomest guy in the world he was decently attractive, but most people wouldn't know because of the white masquerade mask he usually wears. He isn't called the masked mayor for nothing you know? Few of our new arriving villagers know what his face truly looked like, and only the original villagers who lived here myself included know that his real hair color is black not red, though that should be a given since his hair is bright crimson red. I asked him once about this and he told me was because he liked the color red.

"You alright?" I heard him ask as I was brought out of my thoughts.

"I'm alright. Those things couldn't find the hidden button that led to my bedroom" I said with my usual tone. That is until I saw what became of the main room in my house after that I felt my rage building up. Little N noticed this and respectfully decided to give me some space. Once he was outside my house I let out my rage in a blaze of raging obscenities which would have made of the gods I worship cover their ears in embarrassment.

/

Nacho's POV

I shuddered a bit when I heard her swearing. I mean I knew she was going to be mad, but this was beyond what I could ever imagine. I mean holy freakazoid I'm hearing the names of Egyptian gods in those swears. After a few minutes she finally stopped her rampaging swears and everything went quiet for a short moment. Soon I heard a button being pushed and the sounds of stone moving. I became confused at first since she never did tell me what was in the other secret rooms though when I think about she should have a bathroom as well, but why would she be going to the bathroom at a time like this? Well when you got to go you got to go. I waited there for a few minutes until Ankha finally came out of her house, but with something I didn't expect. She came out of her house carrying two strange sickle looking swords on her hips while she carried a quiver and bow on her back said quiver seemed to be carrying at least thirty arrows in it.

I gave her an odd look because who wouldn't? She just came out of her house with weapons I never seen her own before. Although…when I think about it I'm in no position to question since I own weapons everyone in town is unaware of. Anyway…clothing wise she seemed to be wearing her mummy shirt which I haven't seen her wear in quite a while. Though, I can't really tell if it is a shirt or actual bandages covering her female body either way she wears it well.

"So where we're going?" she asked.

"We're heading for my house Copper and Harriet are waiting for us there"

"They're still here?"

"Copper stayed behind after most of the town was evacuated just in case anyone was left behind. Harriet also stayed behind in order to help him, but as for their success not so much…"

Ankha grew silent and honestly I'm not surprised. She may not be friends with all of the villagers in this town, but it doesn't mean she doesn't care for them.

"Who was taken?" I heard her asked with a slight sorrowful tone.

"…Kiki, Chow, Derwin and Isabelle"

"…Little N?"

"Yes?"

"Lead the way"

Fire grew in Ankha's eyes she wants to bring them back just as much as I do. Not wanting to delay our travel any longer we walked towards the direction of my house.

I don't know who did this or why they taking villagers from their homes, but what I do know is they messed with the wrong mayor and once I find out where these things are coming from I going to show the one responsible just how terrifying the "Masked Mayor of Mellow" truly is.

/

Post Author Notes:

Well here's a start to a new story and for those wondering about my other story I'm still working on the next chapter. In other terms be patient please, even though you guys and gals never really complained how long it takes to make chapters. Regardless read and review this chapter, and if you haven't read my other fan fiction story yet go ahead and read it. I could use more opinions on them anyway.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Secrets

Author Notes:

Well here you go another chapter. As you can or cannot already tell for some of these characters I'm taking what little background information I have with them and having fun with it. As for the characters POV's so far I'm just have it limited to the Mayor and Ankha, but if you want me to change the POV's to other characters feel free to tell me so. Other than that please and enjoy this chapter.

 **Fun fact: Ankha gave me medicine for my bee stings which is something I didn't know can happen. Although, when I first talked to her while I was stung she didn't noticed, and the reason for that is because I was wearing my jester mask at the time. So, I removed it and then the conversation popped up. If I have my information correct so far I think snooty villagers will give you the medicine if you have a close friendship with them.**

 **Edit: I had to change a few things because my brain didn't like what I did. Corrections would include placing missing words and changing one sentence a bit.**

/

Nacho's POV

Ankha and I finally made to my house. It wasn't a long walk, but considering the state my town is in we couldn't too careful. Thankfully nothing bothered us on the way here.

"Here we are home sweet home…" I said dryly as I unlocked the door. Once I opened the door I held the door open while gesturing for Ankha to go in first "Ladies first"

"Why thank you 'Little N'" she said with a small bow. "It's nice to see your manners haven't change a bit"

I chuckled I knew she was playing along with my small act of chivalry. I know her just as much she knows me.

…

" _Huh…okay maybe she doesn't know what I do in my trips, but that's beside the point. I mean what other secrets she could be hiding from me?"_

/

We entered my house looking pretty much same as I left it a week before. I looked at the picture frames I have standing on the tables; each picture frame held a photo of villagers who lived in my town in the past. Although most of the villagers in these photos left my town way in the past; I still consider them my friends.

"So what's the plan Little N?"

Hearing Ankha's voice broke me out of my reminiscing. This isn't the time to look back on past memories. I need to focus… "Follow me" I said heading towards the stairs leading to the basement. As we were heading for the basement Ankha spoke her mind about my basement.

"So what's in your basement? Last time I hung out at your house your basement was…how do I say this? Barren? No offense…"

I could only laugh lightly at Ankha's reluctances to comment harshly at my home. I didn't have to look at her to know that she was confused from my laughter.

"What's so funny?"

"You're about to find out in a moment" I said with a small smile.

When we finally reached the basement the look on Ankha's face was priceless. For the room she was once saw as barren was deck out with advance technology she haven't seen before. I looked around the room to see both Copper and Harriet looking at me expecting answers. I never liked those kinds of looks to be honest, but in this case I have to bear with it.

"Sir! Permission to speak!" shouted Copper who seemed to have recovered from his earlier wound a bit, but he still winces a bit when he move his right arm.

"Granted"

"Sir! Just what is all of this?"

"What he said" added Harriet who seemed to be concerned by the entire tech in the room.

"This is my HQ…I had it built a few months ago because of…reasons"

"What kind of reasons?" I heard Ankha said as she walked next to me.

"Remember those trips I keep taking?"

"Yeah what about them?"

"You see there was a reason for me to move into Mellow in the first place. I originally wanted a place I can stay to get away from my troubles, but…I was wrong"

"What do you mean?"

"Yes just what do you mean?"

"I think it's better if I show you" I walked towards a computer panel and started to type on it.

" **Enter password"** asked a computer voice.

I paid the voice no mind as I type in the password.

" **Access Granted. Welcome back Ohkan"**

"Ohkan?" I heard everyone say in unison.

" **What can I do for you sir?"**

"Computer, open the armory"

" **Yes sir"**

After a few moments of buzzing sounds. The floor in the middle of the room opened up and out rose three cabinets and two metal boxes. I could tell everybody was confused, so I walked up to one of the cabinets and open it revealing an array of firearms from modern to the futuristic. I opened up another cabinet showing a set of swords and armor that seem ancient. I opened up the rest containers revealing a vast amount of weapons and armor that seemed to be from parts unknown.

I looked at my friends who still are trying to comprehend the situation. I waited for a moment until a heard a question from Ankha.

"Little N. Just who are you?"

I let out a sigh "My friends…I'm a agent of I.G.M.A.D.A"

/

Ankha's POV

I felt my heart stop for a brief moment. This is happening too fast! My friend…a secret agent? I thought those things only happened in the movies! And just what is I.G.M.A.D.A anyway? I hope Little N is ready to answer these questions.

"I.G.M.A.D.A? What is that?" I heard Harriet ask.

I heard Little N sigh again. He must not like the incoming questions.

"Normally I would say classified, but considering our situation I'll explain. It stands for Intelligence, Gathering, Members, And, Detainment, Agency. What we do is scout around the world for trouble and report it to HQ, and if necessary detain the reported subjects"

"Sir! What kind of trouble?"

"Well terrorist, intergalactic, and giant monster attacks are of the few things we do. There is more on the list, but these are the things I commonly deal with. Mostly giant monster though apparently I'm good at taking those things down"

"What kind of monsters?" I asked as I moved to looked at the dual swords and armor. The armor seemed to be normal; although, I can't tell what region it was from. The swords however were another story. They don't look like traditional swords they looked like fins from some sort aquatic creature, but the color scheme seems to say otherwise.

"Giant bugs, flying wyverns, brute wyverns, gigantic amphibians, elder dragons, etc. That armor is made out of tetsucabra parts and those swords are made out of agnaktor fins and certain other parts"

"You made these from those monsters? I'm impressed if not a bit grossed out"

"Well to be honest it wasn't easy getting those parts, and if it wasn't for The Guy I wouldn't have these things"

"The Guy?"

"Another long story…I'll detail you another time"

I walked away from the armor and look at him. I never seen this side of him before, it's like he's completely different person. I still remember the days we past each other by and sometimes chat up some small conversations. I also remember how eager he was to help others never denying a single request even though he comes up short sometimes, but the effort he put into attempting to fulfill those requests is admirable, and his smile. Oh Osiris, his smile was infectious like a virus infecting a host, and I will always see that smile as he did his best to improve this town. But, now I can't see that smile and his personality did a complete 180, and I'm afraid if this keeps up the friend I once knew will be gone.

"Sir! Can you tell us what's going on?" I heard Copper asked breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Honestly, I'm in the dark as much as you guys. HQ didn't give me any info yet, I only learned about this during one of my trips. If I had to guest this was under another agent's jurisdiction at the time, but they should have it taken care of it already. I don't want to sound like captain obvious, but something must have happened to the agent. However, judging by what I saw out there we are dealing with pretty much zombies"

"Zombies? Don't those only exist in movies?" Harriet asked.

"Well I wouldn't say these are normal zombies. You see when I killed some of those things they melted into a puddle of green blood. You saw that too when Copper killed whatever attacked him"

The two canines looked at each other already remembering whatever terrifying encounter they were a part of. I can't say I had the same experience, but I did see the green puddles he mentioned. But, why did they turn into puddles? I seen my fair share of corpses, and they never turn into puddles. They just dry and shrivel up like raisins, it's kinda gross actually. It's the same reason why I never tried to raise my army of mummified solders. They were simply too gross to look at and they smelled terrible. Speaking of terrible, I wonder how Lucky is doing? Despite what I did to help that poor dog, he still manages to get himself into trouble. Makes me wonder why we named him lucky in the first place. "Well then why did they melt into a green puddle then?" I asked with curiosity.

Little N was about to answer me until the large computer in the back of the room started to make beeping noises. I heard him sigh as we watch him run over to the computer and press a button on it, stopping the beeping noise and in turn a face appeared on the large screen. As from what I can see the man seem to be in his middle ages, and dressed in blue military attire.

"What's up Commander Jarhead?" Little N said in a dry tone. I guess he wasn't in friendly terms with this man.

"Don't test me Agent Ohkan this is important" the man said in a professional tone. Then the man looked around the room seeing me, Harriet, and Copper. "Ohkan! You let civilians into your safe house!" yelled the voice, but Little N didn't flinch from the new loud volume.

"Calm down General…they're only ones who know and I trust them. Got a problem with that?"

"Grr…I'm going to have to talk with you about this later, but right now we have more important issues to worry about."

"Does relate to the zombies I been seeing?"

"You met the creatures? Well then I can get to the point."

"Please do…"

"As you already notice, undead creatures have been showing up in countless villages kidnapping their residents. We sent two other agents to deal with this mess, but we lost contact with them just a few days ago."

"Which agents did you sent?"

"Agents Gonzo and Frog, they both have experience with the undead creatures, so this makes them the ideal choice for the mission."

"Interesting…where were they before you lost contact with them?"

"Their last know location is a small village called Kikowood. It's a village that is surrounded by a dense forest, so it's not very well known with the outside world. However, according to the last transmission, Gonzo and Frog reported strange happenings at the village similar to the incidents that been happening."

"Good to know. So when's the pick up?"

"6:40 A.M, so you're going have to spend the night at your town. Make sure your perimeter is secure before calling it a night. This is Jarhead signing out"

After the screen turn black Little N turn to face us, "Well…looks like I'm gonna have to rollout the sleeping bags." It was all he could say and I don't blame him. There isn't much else he can say, and thankfully neither do Harriet and Copper. He then headed up stairs presumably getting the mentioned sleeping bags leaving us with our thoughts.

"To think that our very own mayor is a secret agent this is almost unreal…" I heard Harriet said as she decided to sit on the floor.

"I knew he was a higher authority, but I didn't think went as far being a secret. What else is my government is not telling us about?" Copper added.

"Ankha you're his best friend right? Did you know this?"

I looked at Harriet when she asked this question, "No he never told me any of this, but to be fair I have my share of secrets."

"Like what?"

"I'm not comfortable talking about it…" I said in a somber tone. Actually that was a lie…well kinda. It's true I'm not comfortable talking about my past, but another reason is that no one will believe me even if I tried.

"Oh…sorry didn't know it was a sensitive topic."

"Don't worry everybody makes that mistake."

"You know? You're much nicer than I thought, you know for a snooty villager"

Okay I'll admit that made me a bit angry hearing that, but now not the time to get upset on how others think of me. So I'll just accept the compliment, "Thanks! Beings friends with Little N are bringing the best out of me" I said as I gave out a fake smile trying my best not to make it look forced.

"Little N…why do you call him that anyway? Is that a nickname you made up for him?"

I felt my face grew red for a moment before answering her question "Actually, yes it is. It just popped in my head one day that since we're friends I should give him a nickname. Honestly, it was the first nickname I could think of at the time, but imagine my surprise when he told me he liked it."

"I do find it surprising since he's actually a bit taller than you. I guess he likes the ironic tone to it?"

"Maybe that's it he never really told me why he liked it in the first place."

"Well it's not like we're going anywhere you should ask him."

"No…I don't think it's a good time. You know zombie attacks and all."

"Err…right never mind."

"Still he must have a lot going through his mind right now. I should talk to him at least about that"

"Yeah considering this whole fiasco is now placed on his shoulders now. I actually wonder what that commander guy is going to do to us once morning comes around."

I was worried about that too. We had no idea what the organization Little N worked for is going to do to us, since we now know of its existence. I can imagine some terrible things, but Little N wouldn't let them do anything to us I'm sure of it. Without another word I turned to the staircase that led to the main room of the house and climbed it.

/

I eventually made it to the main room only to see barricades blocking the door and windows in the room. I figured Little N did this to make sure any remaining zombie couldn't get in, so I continued to look around the room. I spotted two sleeping bags on the floor which I guess will be the bedding for Harriet and Copper, but one thing struck me shouldn't there be a third sleeping bag for me to sleep in? I continued to wonder about this until I heard steps coming from the stairs that led to the second floor. I turn in the direction of noise to see Little N coming down the steps wearing a new outfit. He was wearing a brown zipper leather jacket, dark blue denim pants, steel toe boots, and he doesn't seem to be wearing his mask any more leaving his face naked to the world.

"Little N?" I said meekly not knowing his reaction to my presence.

"Oh hi Ankha didn't expect to see you in the main room so soon. I would have that you would be…you know still talking with the others in the basement."

He attempted to avoid eye contact with me as he walked by. It broke my heart to see him like this. I guess he is still wondering how we feel about his secret.

"Little N we need to talk…"

I heard him sigh. Honestly, it wasn't best way to start this conversation, but it was the best I can do at the time.

"Look Ankha…I'm sorry I kept this secret hidden from everybody, especially you. But I have my reasons…"

"I know Little N, and its okay I understand. But, stop acting like this!"

He flinched a bit after I raised my voice, so I continued to speak my mind.

"Little N I know you now have new burdens to deal with, but I can't stand seeing you like this! I mean where is the happy mayor I became friends with? I want to know where he is!" I continued yelling almost breaking into tears.

He gave me a quick glance before responding, "He…never left, but there is one saying. 'People never change you just learn new things about them.'"

"Then don't let this get to you! I've known you long enough to know that's something wrong!"

He fidgeted with his hands a bit, but then made eye contact with me. I felt my heart skip a beat when that happened and for a moment I saw Little N turn into somebody from my past, along with a soften expression he said the same exact words 'he' said.

"Heh…you always found a way to break down my walls no matter how high I built them up."

The image quickly disappear as it came, and I quickly found myself staring back at Little N whom now gave a small smile before walking away and opening a closet.

"Good, just remember I'm your friend if you have any problems just talk to me, but by the off chance you don't take my advice I going to have to punish you. Got that?"

"Yes ma'am…" he said with a slight sarcastic tone. I smiled to myself knowing that I just got my best friend back and maybe prevented a lot of headaches in the future.

"Ah…crap" I heard him say as he closed the closet.

"What is it?"

"I can't find any more sleeping bags. I swear I thought I had more than two. Well looks like I'm going to sleep on the couch tonight."

"Wait don't you have bed? Why don't you sleep there?"

"Then where are you going to sleep? I am not letting you sleep on the couch if that's what you're thinking."

"Heaven's no! I'm just saying where is your mind today? Your bed can hold two people."

It took me a moment to let what I said to sink in and when it did I felt my face heat up again.

"Oh…right well err…"

"Just take the bed…" he said with finality. "I gonna check the closet again. See if there are any blankets I looked over."

After some time he did found a blanket and then called Harriet and Copper to the main room. He told them where they will be sleeping, and if they hear any suspicious noises in the night they are to wake him up. Before I knew we all climbed into where we will be sleeping for the night and saying good night to each other. It didn't take long for the others to get to sleep, but for me I felt a little restless ever since that image appeared right before my very eyes. I don't know why something like that happened, but I guess Little N does have some similarities with 'Him.' However, this is no time to think about such thoughts that was the past and this is now, and if I'm going to help Little N in the morning I should get some sleep.

Although, somewhere in my mind I felt a little disappointed that I didn't get to share a bed with Little N…


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Arrival

Author's Note:

Wow I cannot believe I got his chapter done in one week into this month. Anyway here's a new chapter for all of you to enjoy and the introduction to four characters, some might actually stay for the rest of the story. Also if you find some things weird with some villagers back stories, just remember I taking some creative liberties with them based on what they said to me in my game and information official to them. One more thing…remember to tell me what you think about the story so far and if you haven't noticed I have a pattern based on which story gets a new chapter posted, which means my 'My Little Pony' story is next on my to do list.

/

Nacho's P.O.V

I was always an early bird. It's something natural to me ever since I was born, but…nobody cares about that. What matters now is getting my weapons ready before the others arrive. I slowly got off the couch I was sleeping on and headed to the basement, doing my best not to wake up the others. Good thing I left the weapons outside when I showed them to Ankha and the others, it saves me from making a LOT of noise in the long run.

"Okay, so I'll be dealing with zombies, that means, I'm going to need some firearms that can deal with groups and for close quarters."

I opened one of the weapon cases and pulled out a semi-automatic shotgun; the Remington Model 1100. I checked the weapon to see if any shells were in it, thankfully there wasn't any. Honestly, I prefer good old pump action, but I think I was to find myself swarmed like in the movies I'll need something faster. I then pat my Red 9 which is currently holstered on my hip. Good old reddy, this old pistol has seen plenty of action, and not once it has failed to get me out of a tight spot. Other agents criticized me for traveling light, but I only take what I need and nothing more.

"Okay…just remmy, reddy, first-aid x5, pistol rounds boxes x5, shotgun shell boxes x4, and one bag to carrying everything, but the guns" I said to no one particular. It took me awhile to realize I nearly forgot something important, "Oh right! I almost forgot about you!" I walked to a nearby cabinet and pull out a small wooden club covered in spikes. "My forget me stick! How could I nearly forget about it?" This little club of mines is a nice alternative to all the other melee weapons I have. Sure it's not the most pretty looking, but it comes with its own share of surprises.

After I hung the club on the left side of my hip, I loaded my guns with their max ammo I placed the remaining ammunition and the med-kits in the bags various pockets, so I don't lose track of them later. I swung the shotgun over my shoulder and quietly walked out of the basement and back into the living room.

/

It became 6:39 P.M when I got back into the living room, and there wasn't much to do but wait for pick up to arrive. After I breathe a small sigh, I looked at my friends. Honestly, I was scared of losing my friends when I brought this secret of being an secret agent to light, but thanks Ankha's stern talking I was able to ease myself of this fear. Although, I actually wonder how the rest of the town would react if they learn of this? I shudder at the thought, there would be so much explaining to do. Hopefully the others would keep quiet about this, but who knows what will happen.

I walked towards the door and peeked through the eye hole, only to be met with nothing outside. This caused me to give out a frustrated sigh; waiting wasn't my strong suit or at least waiting for someone who says they will be here in the morning, and this is also the reason why I don't like staying in one place no longer than I need to, especially if I have something to do.

After seeing no signs of life or walking dead clones, I walked back to the living room and smiled a little after seeing my friends sleeping peacefully and without worry.

"Heh, maybe I should host a slumber party after this fiasco is over, or will it just be a simple party?" I asked myself quietly.

I continued to ponder about this until I saw Ankha tossing and turning in my bed. My right eye brow was raised at this action. My bed is actually comfortable, so she shouldn't be tossing and turning, or at least not this much.

"No…no…please don't go…" I heard her say. My mouth formed an O when I realized she was having a nightmare, but to my curiosity about what? I walked up to the bed and knelt next to her so I can listen to what she is saying.

"Bladeius please don't! They will kill you!" she said as her face shows signs of distress.

Bladeius? Anhka never mentioned anybody with that name, but seeing now how she is acting now, he must hold some significance in her life. I continued to watch her and listen to more of her nightmare, but it eventually go to a point where she was thrashing in bed as if to get some invisible hands off of her.

"Lucky no! Let me go! I said to let me go!" she yelled as tears started to form on her closed eyes.

I decided I heard enough when I saw her on the brink of crying. I placed my shotgun and the bag on the floor to make sure they won't get in the way of my next action. Checking my position I found the moment and quickly embraced her in a hug. To be honest this would work in a lot of situations that required comfort, but now thinking about it, may have been a bad idea with cats. I winced as Ankha claws started to tear up my back as she continue to thrash around. I got to get her to calm down, but usually comfort talking would work after the person woke up from their nightmare. Well considering I'm in the point of no return, I'll have to talk try to talk to her now.

"Ankha calm down…I'm right here" I said softly into her ear, which wasn't easy considering she is destroying my leather jacket and piercing my back with her claws. Regardless it was working, she wasn't thrashing anymore, but now her tears are cascading down her face.

"But…I just saw you go…" I heard her say. "Bladeius…I wonder how things would be different if you came with us…"

Okay awkward…she thinks I'm this Bladeius guy, but on the upside she's embracing the hug now and not rending my flesh asunder.

"Anhka please don't cry and open your eyes…nothing you're seeing is real" I said in attempt to wake her up. Ankha at first didn't respond, but after a few moments she spoke.

"Little N? Is that you?"

Well now she sees me, so I better run with it.

"Yes Ankha it's me, your friend, and I need you to wake up."

Again she didn't respond for a moment until I saw her open her eyes, "Nacho?" she said meekly.

"Are you alright Ankha? That must have been some nightmare, I mean, you were thrashing around in my bed, not to mention destroyed my jacket."

Ankha looked away from for a moment in embarrassment, "Sorry…umm…you won't tell anyone what happen right?"

I gave her a smirk as I wiped the tears from her eyes, "As long as you get me a new jacket, I won't tell a soul."

She returns my smirk with a smile, "It's a deal."

I wanted to ask her about Bladeius, but I decided against it. I don't want to push the subject on her, so hopefully she'll tell me when she's ready.

/

Ankha's P.O.V

What happened?! I haven't had that nightmare in a long time! I thought I gotten over his death ever since I met his…never mind, but what triggered it? My thoughts swirled in my mind until I heard a voice from a certain dog I haven't heard from in a while.

" _Lady Ankha are you okay? I heard you calling my name" asked a voice in concern._

Lucky…we haven't really talked to each other after we went our separate ways. I wanted to respond to him, but with Nacho looking at me I won't be able to focus.

"Little N?"

"Yes Ankha?"

"I need some space to gather myself, do you mind?" I asked him.

"Sure I need to replace my jacket anyway. Just call me if you hear knocking at the door." He said with a relieved voice.

I watched him pick up a rather large bag and a…shotgun?! When did he find the time to get that ready?! Anyway, after he picked up those two items he left to the second floor leaving me and the two sleeping canines in the main room. Having the silence I need, I close my eyes and concentrated my thoughts.

" _Yes Lucky I'm okay…I just had a nightmare that's all." I responded._

" _Oh thank Isis, I thought something bad happened. Where are you anyway?" He asked._

 _I cringed at the question. Lucky was my assigned guardian back during the times of late ancient Egypt. Ever since its fall, we have been traveling together along with the remainder of my family at the time. He's loyal, but at the same time he can be a little bit clumsy and rash with his decisions. However, he can probably help Nacho with this zombie problem; he is a mummy after all._

" _I'm in still in the town Lucky." I said expecting the worst reaction Lucky can make._

" _What!? Why are you there! I thought you evacuated!" He yelled._

 _I winced a little bit, but held strong, "Don't be so overprotective, I can handle myself too you know days and besides, Little N has it covered." I said a little angered. This is the only thing I find frustrating about Lucky, he often forgets that I know how to fight and have a few thousand years of combat experience._

" _Little N? Wait, are you finally dating again?"_

 _I immediately blushed at his assumption, I'm sure glad we can't see each other's faces when we do this, "W-What!? No! That's just the nickname I gave the mayor, who happens to be a friend of mines."_

" _You're friends with the mayor? Uh, never mind just fill me in on what's happening."_

 _Wasting no time I explain the events that happened up to this point while leaving out my nightmare._

" _Okay so you're going to be picked up and dropped at Kikowood? I think I can meet you there, but just to clarify we're dealing with zombie clones right?"_

" _Yes, as stupid as it sounds we are dealing cloned zombies."_

" _I find that insulting…"_

" _I knew you would be…"_

" _Alright…oh yeah before I forget, Ankha?"_

" _Yes?"_

" _It's good to hear your voice again."_

After he finished his sentence, I opened my eyes and smiled before quietly saying, "Nice to hear yours as well."

I should really thank him, my mood really improved after talking to him. I guess talking with old can do that to you. But, life had other plans…No sooner my smiled peaked I heard a helicopter's engine growing louder and louder.

*Bang, Bang*

I nearly jumped at fierce banging at the door.

"Gah!"

"Ah!"

Apparently I wasn't the only one, for the sound also woke up and startled Copper and Harriet.

*Agent Ohkan! Are you in there? Its evac!*

Under the loud roar of the helicopter outside, I heard Little N run down the stairs and opened the door leading outside unleashing the full fury of the helicopters engines.

"What's up guys?" He yelled humorously.

"Ohkan, are you and the civilians ready to go?"

"Hold on! Hey do any of you guys need to use the bathroom?"

Harriet and Copper looked at each other before scrambling to the bathroom, only for Harriet to close the door in Copper's face causing him to hold his nose and reel back in pain. I giggled slightly at the scene, but in hindsight I need to use the bathroom as well. Drat…

Few minutes later…

After everyone including myself, took our turns using the bathroom. We gathered our equipment or rather Copper and I gather our weapons and followed Little N onto the helicopter with Harriet in tow. Once all of us are in the helicopter, the vehicle slowly lifted into the air and took off.

"So what's the E.T.A?" I heard Little N asked the gruff-looking soldier in front of him.

"If you're still sleepy I recommend you catch up on some Z's. It's going to be a three hour trip." The soldier said with slight saracasm.

"You hear that guys? If you're still tired feel free to sleep on it."

Harriet and Copper first looked at Little N with a small scowl before falling asleep.

"What about you Ankha? Are you still tired?" He asked with slight concern in his voice as he turned right to face me.

I shook my head, "No I'm wide awake, thanks to that awful nightmare."

"I figured as much. Hey if something's bothering you, just talk to me okay?"

I gave soft smile, "Okay."

He returned my smile, and immediately old memories begin to flash before my eyes. Again the man I was looking at was replaced first with a slightly pink man in Greek soldier armor, then with a tan man in ancient Chinese armor. I blinked a couple of times before shaking my head to clear my vision and see the man who triggered these visions. This is confusing! Never during my time spending time with Little N, has these memories and visions came in full force. Sure he reminded me of Bladeius in his smile and friendly nature; furthermore, these memory flashes only happen at least once a month.

"Ankha? Are you okay?"

"Its fine…really, I just had a few flash backs of old friends…"

"Want to talk about it?"

"No…another time maybe..."

"Okay then…just remember you can talk to me when you feel ready."

"Thanks."

"No problem it's what friends do. Like when you comforted me when I felt nervous about how you guys will feel after I revealed my secret back at my house."

I nodded in agreement although; it was more of a stern talking to with some emotional drama.

"So Ohkan, you don't mind introducing me to your friend? Considering that the other two are asleep" asked the gruff soldier.

"Might as well, since we're all in this together. Ankha, meet this man whom I'm unable to speak his real name thus his code name is, Agent Dingus."

I couldn't help but laugh on how the man reacts to Little N's wording. He isn't mean in nature, but he tends to make little lighthearted jokes at other peoples expense.

"Dingo! It's Agent Dingo! Gah, why do you do that man? Especially, in front of, pretty ladies like her?"

"Sorry man it's all in good fun, also compared to all those other girls you tried to date, you have no chance with this cat. Just saying."

Goodness, did that man really think he could win my heart? Only two men…no…one soul has managed to win me over, but sadly he rests in the afterlife, forever beyond my reach...

We kept talking for the next hour and a half, mostly talking about small things in our personal lives. Although I held back some information such as me being a flamenco dancer, a famous actor and my own personal history. After that however, things became silent and really boring. Having nothing left to talk about I was left with my thoughts with the occasional chat from Little N for the rest of the trip.

/

Nacho's P.O.V

An hour and a half later…

"Kikowood inbound!" shouted the pilot.

I looked out the right side the helicopter with Ankha as we saw the small secluded town. The town itself is surrounded by a dense forest with only one road that leads out of town and through the forest.

"Well that looks welcoming…" commented Agent Dingo.

"Huh? What, are we there yet?" asked Copper as he rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes.

"I think we are" added Harriet as she looked out the side of the helicopter.

"Little N, do you think we might be able to find our friends in here?" Ankha asked me.

"Maybe not here, but it's a start. Eagle, take us down."

"Roger!"

Listening to my command, Agent Eagle slowly brought us down into the village and landed in an empty spot of land.

"Alright we're clear to disembark." I said as I got up from my seat and stepped off the helicopter with Ankha, Harriet, Copper, and Dingo in tow. Eagle later joined us as he stopped the engines in the helicopter and got off the pilot seat.

"Okay everyone, since this is our ride home remember where we parked." Eagle joked.

"Does everyone have a weapon ready?" I asked.

Copper took out his M1911 handgun out and loaded it; he also seems to have a Riot Shotgun on his person as well. Dingo must have given it to him and Harriet, for when I turn to her she has one, as well, as a Beretta M9. I gave her a look that read _"Do you know how to use those?"_

"What? My dad took me out shooting when I was teenager."

Well at least she has experience…

"So, Ankha right? Are you sure you want to use those outdated weapons in this situation? We still have some spare weapons and ammo." Dingo asked Ankha.

Oh boy…

"OUTDATED?! I'll have you know that no other can use these weapons better than I, and they will put your modern firearms to shame!" Ankha yelled causing Dingo to jump back and hide behind me.

"Whoa! What did I say?"

"You press the 'outdated' button, and you never press a girl's button." I said flatly.

From my time as mayor of my town I learned to respect other villagers sense of style, even if irks me a tad bit. Besides, I find Ankha's ancient Egypt theme in her house interesting.

"Help! Please is there is anyone who can help?!" We heard a voice yell along with a couple of moans and groans.

"Ah, crap…looks like we have company." Commented Dingo, as he got his combat shotgun ready.

Everyone soon follow his example, myself included as we got our shotguns ready for whatever heading our way. In Ankha's case however, she got into a stance with her two swords. It seems that she has much experience with those weapons, but it makes me wonder; how much experience?

We waited for little bit to see if anything came out of the corners of the buildings, and after a small moment a weird rabbit that resembles a gyroid came running pass one of the houses on the left, with five zombies chasing after the gyrabbit.

"Help me! Please!" the rabbit pleaded as it ran towards us flailing it arms.

Wasting no time we sprang into action, but imagine our shock when Ankha swiftly ran pass us towards the zombies. She hooked two of them with her swords and using her momentum swung both of them into the other zombies knocking them down. I remember Ankha telling me that she was one of the fastest runners in my town, but after seeing her in action I believe she actually makes the worldwide top ten.

"You're not gonna expect me to do all the work are you?" she said as she cut two zombies heads off. Ankha then hook another zombie and threw it at us. Wasting not a single moment we all took aim and blasted the zombie with all of our combine shotgun blasts.

After blowing that zombie up into gory shower of green blood, I looked around and saw ten more zombies heading our way. A rhino villager zombie charged at us causing all of us to roll out of the way. Not good…last time I check we're gonna need stronger rounds to even pierce that hide.

"Guys! That's a rhino! Aim for the mouth or the eyes!" I yelled.

I need to help Ankha and that gyrabbit, I look to where they were and saw Ankha having trouble with a bunch of monkey villager zombies which kept their distance from her swings and threw axes at her. She manages to dodge the axes, but she still can't hit them. I ran to aid her against the zombie monkeys, killing two other zombies along the way.

"Hey! zombo!" I yelled at the monkey zombies; gaining their attention. Thinking fast I aimed my shotgun at one of the monkeys and blasted its head clean off. This stunned the other two zombies only for them to have an arrow fly through both of their heads destroying their brains. I looked at Ankha who was now wielding her bow with an arrow ready.

"Wow…you are surprisingly good at fighting."

"Sorry Little N, but I have more battle experience than you think."

"If only you brought that up during our chats with each other."

"We'll talk about it later…" she then released her arrow and took the head off of a nearby bear villager zombie.

"We have a lot of things to talk about later…" I said as I turned around and blasted a hole in a zombie attempting to sneak up behind me.

It wasn't long until the rest of the zombies were killed and reduced to green puddles. We all gathered at the helicopter with the gyrabbit wishing to ask her if she knows anything about the zombies, but first…

"Did anyone bring a towel?" I asked.

"Uh yeah, actually we did for once." Eagle said as he went into the helicopter and brought out a towel. "Here you go" he said as he threw a towel at me.

"Thanks, but it's not for me." I replied as I turn to Ankha and handed her the towel.

"Why thank you Little N, for being considerate, also I don't wear green very well" she said as she cleaned the blood off of her fur.

"No problem. Now onto the most important topic at hand" I then turn to the gyrabbit who seem to be both relieved and crying at the same time. "What's your name?" I asked as kindly as I can.

The gyrabbit looked at me and spoke in a slight echo, "M-My name is Coco…"


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Found Lost

Author's note:

Whew finally got this chapter done. And considering my English homework well it was rather hard to focus on one thing then another, but that doesn't matter you got something to read now. Heads up some slight character background information with some intentionally left out details will be present; also another Animal Crossing Character will be making his appearance in this chapter. Now enough talk, read and enjoy!

/

Nacho's P.O.V

"Coco huh? Can you explain to me what happen here?" I asked as gently as possible. I knew she was shaken by the experience by these zombies, so it was crucial to comfort the gyrabbit whenever I can.

"T-They came out of the woods…everybody in town was taken by those…things!"

"Wait, so you're the only survivor?"

"Am I? Did those things kill the other villagers?!"

Oops, wrong choice of words… "No, I did not mean to imply that. I can confirm that those zombies do not plan to kill anyone." I said trying to clear up any misconceptions.

"Then why did they attack?"

"From Intel, so far these things only plan on kidnapping villagers, also Intel said there was a number of kidnappings happening in your town before we arrived. Can you help explain that?"

"Oh…that…" Her voice seems to change tone when that subject was brought up. Instead of being worried she became angry. "That stupid mayor…I told him that we should tell people outside our village what's been happening, but noooo…he said if he did that it would ruin his chance of getting a perfect town rating. Stupid idiot…"

Huh, so there was a mayor in this town. Apparently, whoever he was, he was obsessed in making his town perfect, so much so that he wasn't willing to spread the news about what's happening in his own town. "So do you know when the kidnappings happened?"

Coco expression then changed to a normal stare-like look, "They usually happened at night, and I saw each and every one of them. Those things were quick to break into a home and silence the owner to avoid making more noises. Another time was in the woods themselves, we a have path we walk through in order to avoid getting lost, but one time I was walking in the woods with another villager running ahead; I think his name is Poncho. Then out of the trees these monkey zombies ambushed him. He tried fighting them off, but they eventually overpowered him and dragged him off into the woods never to be seen again…"

"Did you tell any of the other villagers about those incidents?"

"I did and it had one of the two effects. They either called me a liar and walked away, or they listened to me and moved out of town."

"Well you did what you can, and those who moved out thank you for that."

"Thanks…"

Needing no further information I backed away from her and started to analyze the information. _"Well that's one lead…but if those things originated from the forest then we have to remain alert at all times. In a dense forest like that those things can pop out of nearly anywhere."_

"Alright Ohkan, any ideas?" Dingo asked.

"Looks like our only lead is in the forest guys, but it will be dangerous. The forest is dense and these zombies could appear from nearly anywhere, so I want you all to stay alert."

"But, what about Coco? We can't leave her here" Eagle said as he pointed to the gyrabbit.

"She's better off coming with us. At least with us she will be protected." Eagle nodded at my answer signaling that he agrees. "Alright, no other objections?" I asked everybody else not expecting an answer. After a brief moment of silence everybody except for Eagle either shook their head or said no. "Good, now let's get going, we got source we need to find." Everybody nodded and got their weapons ready, but as we were heading towards the forest we heard some groaning nearby. I felt myself tense up and mentally hoping it wasn't another group of zombies. I honestly do not want to deal with them right now. However, to my surprise some of the groaning was silenced and before I knew it a headless zombie body was thrown through the air.

"What the heck?!" I heard Dingo said in surprise. As for everybody else gasped in shock except for Ankha who was instead smiling.

I looked back at the direction the body was thrown and saw a tall figure walking out of the shadows of the trees. When the figure finally stepped out of the shadows, I felt my eyes widen, for in front of me was a six foot four inch mummified dog wielding a spear and carrying a sheathed sword at his waist. The mummy dog wasn't wearing much except for some light armor and clothes over its body.

"What the hell?! Is that another zombie?" Dingo readied his weapon and was about to shoot the mummy dog until Ankha shouted at him.

"No, don't shoot!" She then in a blink of an eye used her swords to pin Dingo's rifle to the ground thus preventing him from firing upon the mummy dog.

I was confused and apparently I wasn't the only one. Harriet, Copper, Eagle, and Coco were staring at her like she grew a second head. But, I know Ankha, and if she knows this mummy dog then I welcome this new ally.

"Everybody stand down!" I yelled causing everybody with their weapons ready to reluctantly to lower their weapons.

The mummy dog, slowly step towards us all the while looking at us. I could not tell what it was thinking, but all I could tell is that it was judging if we were a threat or not. It wasn't long before Ankha ran up to the mummy and stood in front of it. I could feel the tension from the rest of the group as I looked on and saw Ankha put her hands on her hips and talked to the mummy in a language I don't understand. A little later the mummy dog gave her a one arm hug and then walked towards me. It then stopped in front of me and honestly despite me being 5 foot 10 inches I felt slightly intimidated by this things' presence.

"Hi, my name is Lucky. You must be Little N; Lad…er…I mean Ankha's friend." Suddenly I was less intimidated now. The mummy sounded like a young boy who was ten years old, but trapped inside a tall mummy's body.

"Yeah…that would be me…Just what are you exactly?"

"Eh…I'm a dog wrapped in bandages, but if you must know I'm a good friend of Ankha's and any friends of her is a friend of mines." He extended his arm for a handshake and not seeing any reason to decline I accepted the handshake. Color me surprised when I felt his grip, if he weren't a friend I say he could easily overpower me in a battle of strength.

"Good to know, we should meet up some time once this situation is dealt with."

"I would like that, Ankha and I have a lot to catch up on, and you must be an interesting person."

Well…he's polite, were did Ankha meet this guy? I guess that doesn't matter, we have a new ally regardless. I just hope the rest of the group can agree.

"Ohkan, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean it's a mummy!" of course Dingo would have something to object about…

"Dingo! He's a friend of my friend, we can trust him. You best leave out whatever movie monster you have in your head and leave it at home, okay Dingo?"

We both stared each other down, but Dingo eventually relented and sighed, "Fine, whatever you say man."

"Good, now let's head into the forest and see we can find anything." Everybody nodded in agreement and followed me into the dimly lit forest.

/

Ankha's P.O.V

Well…I didn't expect Lucky to get here so fast, but I'm glad he did, maybe he can help find the source of these stiffs.

"Ankha?"

I turned my head to Lucky ready to respond whatever question he was about to ask, "Yes Lucky?"

"That man…Dingo right? Did he call your friend Ohkan?"

I had a feeling he would ask that…to be honest I had a similar thought, but I easily push that idea out of my mind.

"Lucky…it's just a codename. I don't get too excited."

"Oh…never mind then…"

I could really only sigh at our conversation, old painful memories are resurfacing and I really do not want to look back at those tragedies.

"So…what have you been doing all these years?"

Well at least he was trying to change the subject…

"Nothing much really…I was just wandering around on my own, until I moved into a small town called Mellow. It's a nice town and I enjoy living there. Thankfully, I moved there only a few years ago, so nobody suspects my secret."

"I always wonder how you managed to keep it a secret from those around you."

"It's not easy, I always tried to keep other people at arm's length and so far it worked out. That is until 'he' came around."

"He?"

I took a deep breath before I explained to him, "Little N…or rather Nacho. He became the new mayor of our town after Tortimer retired, and he was adamant at first, but he later accepted the position. Afterwards our town took a turn for the better; Nacho was very social among his peers and was willing to lend an ear to their problems. It wasn't long before he talked to me, I was among the first of the villagers to greet him, so I kind of figured he would look for me. When we first talked to each other he was very kind and was willing to listen to what I had to say. I actually tried to keep him at arm's length like I usually do, but for some the reason I couldn't do it and I found myself opening my heart to him. Before long I became more sociable to other villagers, making friends with a few of them. In turn he did not just change our town, but change my life."

"So… do you like him?"

I felt my eyes widen in shock and my face heat up in embarrassment, "W-What?! Where did you come to that conclusion?!"

"Lady Ankha…I may be a kid, but I'm very observa…observe…observant. Besides I am your personal guard not to mention being there when you first fell in love with Bladeius, so I have experience on how you think."

I looked away from Lucky, mentally cursing to myself. But, he is right; I can't really hide anything from somebody who knows me well just as I proved to Nacho when I had to snap him out of his mood. "Grr…I hate it when you're right…"

"So, you DO like him?"

"I…err…I don't know…"

"Ankha…it's not healthy to hold your emotions to yourself. If you like him you should tell him. I want to see you happy Ankha."

"I know, but I still can't get Bladeius out of my heart…he is the only man I gave my heart to."

"Then why does your heart waver in the face of your new friend?"

"I don't know! It never happened before!" I yelled incidentally gaining the attention of everybody in the group.

I felt all eyes look at us from my outburst, and it really did not help my mood.

"Ankha, are you okay?" Nacho asked with concern in his eyes.

"I'm fine! I'm fine…"

"Alright, but remember, just talk to me if you have anything on your mind okay?"

"Okay…" I gave a small smile as reassurance to him as he returned to leading our group through the forest.

"You know he's starting to remind me of Bladeius…" I heard Lucky commented

"I know…and I hate it…"

"Why? I thought you'll be glad seeing these traits considering your last relationship."

I felt my anger rise, but kept it down in order not to cause another scene, "Because I know Bladeius' soul is never coming back. He told me himself…"

"He told you? Where and when?"

My eye slowly began to water as I remembered what he said, "Back when we met his second life. He told me during his dying breath that the gods only gave him one chance to come back and once he dies here he won't be coming back."

"Oh…I never knew…"

"…"

"Sorry for bothering you Lady Ankha…"

I dried up my tears before I gave him a weak stern look, "It's fine; just don't bring it up again."

"As you wish."

…

We kept following Little N throughout the forest, but the further we walked into the forest the more we feel lost, for nothing happened for the past ten minutes. I felt lost in the dense forest despite being close to so many people. And, as it turns I wasn't the only one feeling this way.

"Um…I think we're going around in circles." I heard Coco said meekly as she was staying close to Eagle.

Hearing this caught Little N's attention, for he stop in his tracks and turn to face what he called a "Gyrabbit."

"What do mean Coco?"

"W-Well I've seen us pass that tree with a mark on it for a few minutes now. I didn't say anything till now because I thought I was imaging things." Coco then pointed to the tree she mentioned and true to what she said I saw the mark. I wanted to check the mark, but Little N beat me to the punch. He examined the mark while sticking his finger into the groove; checking how the deep the mark was into the tree. "Shit…" was all he said as he ran back to us while readying his shotgun.

"Sir, what is it?" Copper asked with concern.

"That mark wasn't made very long ago!"

As if further proving his point, loud screeches began sounding around us. We had to cover our ears just to withstand the intensity of the combined screeches, and it wasn't long until the sources revealed themselves to us. Three zombie bird villagers looked at us from the shadows of the trees above us before jumping off the branches they were perched on and swooped at us.

"Incoming!" Little N yelled as he rolled out of the way; nearly being hit by one of the birds.

Everyone else soon followed as each of us dodged the relentless swooping of the birds while doing our best to retaliate. After my second dodge roll, I aimed my arrow at one of the birds as it came around for another strike. Despite the frantic situation, I waited for the same bird to swoop at me before pulling the arrow back. I kept my eyes focused on the bird that swooped at me, and soon it enough it targeted me again, but unfortunately for the bird; I was ready. With a small smirk I released the arrow at the bird piercing its skull and causing it to flip backwards and crash into the ground. I gave a small fist pump gesture as the corpse melted into a green puddle leaving the arrow I shot on the ground. I ran to pick up the arrow, but as I was about to pick it up I heard Lucky shout, "Ankha, watch out!"

With Luckys' warning and my own senses flaring; I quickly picked up my arrow and flipped backwards narrowly avoiding another bird's attack.

"You're not going to touch me you filthy avian!" I yelled as I fired the arrow I picked up recently at the bird. The arrow pierced the zombie bird left wing forcing the corpse to land. It looked at me and gave me a loud screech before charging at me. Seeing no threat in the creature I merely shrugged and turn my back to it, which seem to anger it much to my amusement.

As I was ignoring the bird zombie that was closing in on me, I watched Little N and the rest gun down the other bird zombie. I could only mentally sigh at the sight, _"Seriously? You think with all these advancements in combat they would be able to hit one man size zombie bird."_ The zombie charging at me was quickly closing in as I placed my bow on my back and pulled out both my swords.

"Especially…" I quickly turned around with my swords ready with the zombie within range of my blades. I waited a few moments before moving and in one swift motion I hooked the zombie bird with my swords; first I hooked the creature's right arm then its body before swinging the creature and pinning it to the ground. "…against brainless creatures such as these." With my hands on my hips, I walked towards Little N with a small smile on my face. On my way to him, Lucky gave me a confused look, wondering why I left the zombie alive, but I just gave him a small wink which only he can understand.

"Oh Little Nnn…" I said, gaining the attention of my friend, although the expression on his face tells me he didn't like the tone in my voice.

"Yes Ankha?"

"I saw your performance in dealing with only one zombie bird, and I must say… I'm disappointed."

"Uh…yeah I could have saved some of shotgun ammo if I just used my pistol…" he then gave me a sheepish smile as to further show his embarrassment.

"Hey! What about us? We helped!" Dingo yelled much to my annoyance.

"And with all that fire power you still didn't kill it in less than a minute." I retorted, shutting Dingo's mouth and causing the rest of the group to look away in shame. "Anyway…Little N I know a way, you can make it up to me for your poor performance."

"I'm afraid to ask, but how?"

"It isn't much, but I want you to finish off that zombie I left pinned to ground while saying a one liner." I said as I gave a small mischievous smile.

"Oh man…"

"What's the matter man? I heard you say one liners all the time when we were bunk buddies back in camp."

I had to place a hand over my mouth to stifle a giggle, "You what?"

"Damn it Dingo! Why did you have say that out loud!"

"Whoopsie…"

Little N's face flushed a bright red as everyone else in the group did their best to hide their laughter. Seeing no reason to delay the inevitable Little N walked over to the zombie I pinned to the ground and pulled out his handgun. He then pointed the gun to the creature's head and before he pulled the trigger he said, "Eat lead, and Stay dead!"

*Bang*

With one swift bullet to the brain the zombie gave off one last groan before melting into a green puddle like the rest of its flock.

After firing his gun Little N blew at the muzzle and hoister his gun. I silently walked passed him and picked up my swords before hanging them at my hips.

"Not bad Little N…" I said as I walked up to him with my smile unwavering. "I would love to hear more from you in future, okay? me meow…"

I mentally giggled as I heard him curse under his breath before looking at me with the color red mostly dominating his face. "Sure, and maybe we could work on some together?"

Hearing this caught me by surprise, sure he could have said out of nervousness, but some part of me would love to if it was true. Besides, my experience as an actor could be useful for this type of bonding.

With my smile threatening to grow wide I walked passed Little N, but not without saying, "You should add that to the list of things we need to do when we get back."

/

Nacho's P.O.V.

Damn it, she really knows how to press my buttons…ha ha. But, at least I know a few of hers, so I'll get her back later. I took a deep breath; composing myself before I turn around to face my friends.

"Alright Ohkan, now that we know that we're officially lost; any bright ideas?" Dingo said with snarky a tone.

I could tell he wasn't willing to make random guesses on where to go next, I had to think of something fast; an angry Dingo is going to give me hell down the line. I made quick glances around me hoping to find ideas. After a few seconds, it finally hit me, I have three dogs in my group whom possibly have a great sense of smell, and I have an object that they could use.

"Harriet, Copper, and Lucky! You mind coming over here?" My three canine companions ran up to with confused looks plastered on their faces.

"What is it, sugar?"

"What do you need sir?"

"Eh…what they said. (More or less…)"

"How are your tracking skills?" I asked earning a few nervous glances.

"Well not very good…working in the salon may have mess with my nose a bit."

"Er…sorry Nacho my nose doesn't really work."

I turn to Copper who obviously was holding in his excitement. I mentally chuckled to myself; of course the police dog would have the best tracking skills available.

"Copper?"

"Sir! I have tracked down many criminals with my nose. I was considered by many law enforcement agencies to be the best."

Going along with his demeanor I put on my best army man face before pulling out Isabelle's hair band, "Officer Copper, I need you to sniff this hair band and track down its owner."

Copper took one look at the hair band before straightening himself and giving another salute, "Sir, yes Sir!"

He took the hair band and gave it a few sniffs before looking west, "It's faint sir, but I picked up a scent! That way!"

"Nice work Copper! Lead the way!"

Copper gave a quick salute before moving in the direction he pointed out.

"Alright, now we're getting somewhere." I heard Dingo said out loud causing me to quietly chuckle. Though, most people would consider him an inconsiderate ass, his heart is in the right place and thankfully so is his brain. In the most of dangerous of missions he always had my back, so in other words he's an invaluable ally, and a loyal friend.

Speaking of friends…I should ask Ankha more about her friend Lucky. I walked over to the two as we're following Copper. Ankha took quick notice and had a faint smile on her face as I came over. I felt my heart race as I looked at her, we been great friends for a while now… but, there's no denying it now I had truly fallen for this feline. I'm not sure when these feelings came, but she's the only one who can evoke them out of me. However, does she feel the same? That is the magic question, but unfortunately, now is not the time to act on those feelings. I'm a smart man and I know there's a time and place for everything, I just need to focus at the task at hand.

"What is it Little N?" Ankha asked.

"Nothing important, I just wanted ask you about your friend Lucky."

Ankha's reaction to my question made raise a brow, her eyes widened and she looked at Lucky as if she was excepting some kind of help. Lucky only gave her a confused shrug causing her to give out an exasperated sigh.

"I could ask another time if you don't feel like talking about it right now."

"No no no! It's not that, it's just that our history is complicated that's all."

"Complicated? How is your history with your friend complicated?"

"Well…we met when I was six years old. My parents introduced me to him and well…we didn't really hit it off great…"

"She called me a filthy mutt and not to get anywhere near her." Lucky explained.

"Yeah…I was a foolish, spoiled kitten during that time in my life."

"I can believe that, I mean not all friendships started off great like ours right?"

"True, also considering Lucky was my first friend, so I learned from him. Anyway back on topic, I was first mean to Lucky often telling him not to touch me or my stuff. Unfortunately, to my embarrassment this continued for two years without my parent's knowledge. That is until that one fateful day, I decided to take a walk; away from the comforts of my home. It was a dumb decision, for it wasn't long before I was abducted by three men. Of course like any eight year old I started to thrash about and shouted insults at them like I usually do to people I hate, but obviously that didn't work and they told me to shut up or else they will kill me there and now. With the situation finally dawning on me, I started to cry and attempted to shout for help. The kidnappers not wanting the attention covered my mouth and brought a knife to my face. At that time I thought I was never going to see my own mother and father again…but in my darkest hour I heard a growl and the kidnappers mentioning a stupid mutt. Shortly after hearing this, something tackled the man holding me to the ground. The man let me go in order to get rid of his attacker, my savior from his face. When I tried to grasp the situation, I heard someone yell 'run!' at me. Willing to take any advice at the moment I ran away from those dreadful people, but as I was running I heard a yelp. This stopped me from running further, and instead turn back and hid somewhere near the action. While I was hiding I saw the men running all beaten and bloody with a few teeth marks on their body. Scared I kept myself hidden until my savoir revealed himself…"

"Wait you mean, Lucky did that for you?!"

Tears began forming at Ankha's eyes, "He did…despite how I treated him, he came to my rescue. Needless to say our relationship improved afterwards and we became close friends."

"That is until you came along Nacho, because of you, now Ankha has two best friends." Lucky added as he tried to give me a smile.

"Wow you two have quite a turning point in your relationship. I'm almost jealous, we met after I stepped out of a train and became mayor."

"True, but you became a friend to Ankha and was always there for her when I couldn't. So don't sell yourself short."

"Hey thanks Lucky."

"No Problem."

Ankha looked liked she was about to say something until I heard Copper yell something out, "Sir! You might want to look at this!"

"On my way! Sorry let's continue this conversation another time." I left the two as I made my way to Copper and the others as they were stuck staring at something. "Copper, what did you find?" I asked until I saw what everyone was staring at. It was a grand mansion three stories tall and five houses wide. "How long have we been walking?!"


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Breaking and Entering

Author's notes:

Hello there all you beautiful people. Sorry for taking so long, but this is a long chapter. That and other obvious reasons, but I like to wish you all a merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate during the winter. I hope you all spend a good time with all your family members or loved ones and have a good time. As for the chapter well…read for yourself and tell me what you think so far. Thank you and enjoy.

/

Nacho's P.O.V

"How long have we been walking!?" I yelled in shock, not knowing how we could have possibly missed such a huge mansion in this forest. But, what is it doing here?

"Long enough…" responded Dingo, as he holsters his weapon and pulls out pair binoculars and looked at the mansion. "Oh boy…"

Hearing that was never a good sign, "I take it found a problem?" I said humorlessly, knowing that my friends and many others are trapped inside that mansion.

"Eyup…there's a bunch of zombies wandering the grounds of the place." Dingo then looked at me with a serious expression. "It's a morbid rainbow of the undead, birds, frogs, dogs, cats you name it. What kind of sick fuck creates zombie clones of other villagers?"

I felt a small tinge of anger swell up in me. This is just plain wrong, kidnapping villagers and using them to create these walking monstrosities, but for what purpose? Actually, when I think about it a few possible agendas can be the reason; hate for everything living, taking over the world with zombie army, or well intention scientist gone mad.

"Huh this is strange…" Dingo said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"What did you find?" I asked curiously.

"There are a couple of small buildings in front of the mansion; they look like houses."

My eyes widen at this information, "Wait that means this entire area is another town!"

Dingo stowed away his binoculars before pulling out his rifle, "Eyup…and we need to find a way to get in there without alerting all these zombies; we don't enough bullets for all of them."

"Sir! Permission to speak!" Copper said next to me.

"Granted, what is it Copper?"

"Sir! I made some observations of my own and noticed the entire perimeter is fenced off. I don't see any other way to get inside other than the front gate!" he said with his usual salute.

"Thank you for the info Copper, be ready for my orders"

"Sir!"

Crap…looks like we don't much of a choice; we have to go through the front door. If that's the case we may have every wandering zombie in the area gunning for us, which means we have to be very conservative with our ammo and choose our targets wisely. Although, Ankha and Lucky wouldn't have to worry about that since they both have weapons that can cut through zombies cleanly and Ankha has reusable arrows, so there's that.

"Alright, we're going through the front. Once we reach the front gate we assess the situation from there, okay?"

Everybody nodded in acknowledgement as we left the forest and followed the metal fence. It took a bit of time, but we found the front gates. The gates rose high and are painted in the same black color as the fence. Interestingly, there is a lock and chain keeping the gate…well, locked. I peered beyond the bars gate in order to get a better look on our surroundings. As it stands, it looks like the mansion is a straight shot from here, but like Dingo said there are a lot of zombies wandering around. Once we break through this gate, we're going to have to make a beeline straight to the mansion in order to reduce the possible number of stiffs chasing us.

"Ohkan, what's the game plan?" asked Eagle.

"To be honest, this is the most straightforward plan I ever had."

"You mean like Operation: Windshield?" Dingo said with a snide smile.

"Operation: Windshield? Little-N what mission was that?" Ankha asked with a confused look.

"Well…let's just say it was one of the few times I became Captain Obvious…"

"Oh…I see…" Ankha then proceeded to shuffle her feet while trying her best to avoid eye-contact. I knew she was doing her best not to say something, we been friends long enough to keep such embarrassing moments between us.

"In short, we're going to run straight to the mansion and get inside while shooting any zombie that gets in our way."

Everybody except for Ankha and Lucky gave me a stern look. Yup, this is starting to feel like Operation: Windshield all over again. I began to countdown from one to three, as I counted to two everybody tense up; readying themselves for the mad dash to the mansion. Once I said three I blasted the lock on the gate with my shotgun, shooting off the lock and opening the gate.

*WRAGH*

*ROAR*

*SCREECH*

I tensed up as I heard the zombies make their groans and roars. Wasting no time we ran straight through the courtyard shooting any zombies that got too close to our group.

"Geesus, fricken christ! How many of these things are there?!" I heard Dingo shout followed by a loud splat.

"Well there is a reason we're running now aren't we?!" I shouted at Dingo, but keeping my focus to then mansion. As we're running I noticed something strange, there are buildings scattered around the courtyard. I don't know why this caught my eye, but right now I don't have the time to mull over it, we needed to get to the mansion and there are too many zombies to count. Speaking of zombies…a loud screech broke me out of my mind as I saw a monkey zombie jump straight at me. Thinking fast, I quickly aimed my shotgun and blasted the zombie causing it to fly in the opposite direction it came.

I gave a small smirk; it's been awhile since I had an assignment that involved zombies. To be honest I forgot how satisfying it is to blow a zombie's brains out; they make nice cannon fodder don't you know? The distance to the mansion is slowly closing and the groans of the zombies chasing us slowly fading in the distance, honestly I'm surprised this plan is going smoothly which only means one thing; something bad is going to happen.

/

? P.O.V

Running…running…that is all I could think of doing as I ran through the halls. I just want to get out of here, and go home…

*Muah…*

*Groan*

"Eeep! Leave me alone!" I shouted at the creatures as I increased my pace in order to out run them. Another door came into view, this mansion is like a maze and so far I been barging into rooms hoping to find something to get these monsters off my tail. Needing no other incentive I quickly opened the door shut it behind me. I pressed my body against the door preventing these creatures from breaking in. While I am doing this I quickly scanned the room, checking to see if there is anything I could use to bar the door. Fortunately, there was a dresser near me, so acting fast I released myself from the door and immediately pushed the dresser in front of the door. It was a bit heavy, but in this situation that would be a good thing.

*Muwah*

*Bang, Bang, Bang*

The sound of the zombies banging on the door made me jump, but I knew they won't be able to get in. However, this doesn't mean I should stick around here. Luckily, the room I was in had a balcony, so I ran outside and noticed the balcony extended to the other side of the mansion. The cold air made me shiver a bit as it blew my golden hair in the low lit dawn sky. I felt my tears cascading down my face; why did this happen? It's feels like I'm trapped in a nightmare, but in reality I'm wide awake and all alone…will I ever see my home again? Will I ever see Him again? I ponder these questions as I walked the balcony letting the cold winds hit my clothed furry body which did little to keep me warm.

"I just want to go home…"

I continued walking until I saw a metal door. I checked the handle; it turned all the way signaling that the door is unlocked. I slowly opened the door and peered inside; it was a stairwell that led downstairs. Seeing no other path I opened the door completely and stepped inside. Honestly, my trek down the stairs was uneventful which is a nice change of pace…well it would be, but so far my experience in this mansion told me otherwise. So, I kept myself alert to the noises of the mansion; thankfully most of them are too far in the distance. I eventually reached the end of the stairway and was met with another door I reluctantly reached for the handle and opened the door. I was met with what could be considered a dead garden. The open space has a couple of stone bridges crossing the dirty river of water surrounding the garden.

"This is very depressing…"

I don't know why I walked towards the garden, but I guess it reminded me of my current situation. Crossing the bridge I noticed there was a skylight that would make sense considering that this room used to be a garden, but now it served no purpose other than cast a gloomy lighting. Reaching the garden, not surprisingly I found that the flowers are all wilted. Poor flowers…they looked like they were once cared for, but I guess one day they were left to die. Looking at these flowers made me think back to the flowers back in Mellow. In the town I call home, flowers grew abundantly and are basically everywhere you walked making it really hard not to trample all over them. I looked beyond the garden and noticed another bridge leading to double-doors. Those doors look very different from the others, judging from that logic perhaps it would lead me to a way out?

Breaking away from the wilted flowers, I approach the door until I noticed the lighting grew darker. My mind raced as I looked back to the skylight with dread creeping in my fur. What I saw made my heart stop. A bat like creature is staring down at me behind the glass and I can feel it smiling at me.

*Crash*

The creature broke the glass causing the shards to rain down from the sky. I immediately jumped out of the way closer to the bridge avoiding the pieces of glass that would have cut me into ribbons.

"There you are!" the creature said with obvious malice as it descended staying only a few feet off the ground. "The doctor is not pleased that one of his…'materials' is missing. Now be a nice puppy and return to the lab at once!"

"No! Leave me alone, I just want to go home!" I yelled at the creature immediately running towards the door tears continuing to flow down my face.

"Heh heh heh ha ha! Foolish canine…" Was the only thing I heard from the creature as I forcefully opened the door close and closed it behind me. Only to be met with the three snarling dog faces.

"No! Stay away!" I cried in vain already knowing full well that these zombies won't listen to reason. Not one resorting to violence I rammed the nearest zombie; knocking it down to ground clearing the path for me to run past the other two undead canines who tried to grab me. After that I kept running…passing another hall before running into the foyer, but I ignored the fact that I was close to freedom and rushed pass the next set double-doors leading outside. Once I was outside I could hear the sounds of gunshots in the distance. I peered in the distance and saw a small group of people heading in my direction. Could it be? Did someone send help?

*Muwah…*

"Ah!" The moan of a nearby zombie made me jump out of my thoughts and forced me to run straight down the steps of mansion and hopefully to the safety of the group heading my way.

"Hey! Over here! Please help!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as I ran at them only to stop at a nearby broken fountain to catch my breath, but I didn't care I looked back where the group was and saw they noticed me and are quickly making their way to me. I gave a quick sigh of relief mentally thanking whatever god who was watching over me. Finally, this nightmare can be over and everyone else can be saved. I can't wait to go home and see everyone's faces again; Digby and The Mayor must be worried sick about me. After a little moment of rest, I heard the sounds of footsteps come to a stop telling me that my saviors have arrived.

"Don't worry we're here to hel…Isabelle?!" said a rather familiar voice.

My ears perked up at the sound of that voice. No…it couldn't be…I looked up from my resting position to see the mask less face of the one and only…

"Mayor?!"

/

Nacho's P.O.V

I couldn't believe my eyes, Isabelle managed to escape from the mansion and here she is looking at me with a surprised look on her face with tears running down her face. Oh boy…I can tell she was full of questions, but that doesn't matter right now; I'm just glad she's okay.

"Mayor!" she cried as she slammed into me enveloping me in a hug. I felt her body quiver in mines as she continued crying. I could only feel sorry for her; she must have gone through a lot in that terrible mansion.

"Don't worry, I'm here you're safe now…" I said in soothing voice as I rubbed her head hoping to calm her down. Though at the same time, I feel like someone is burning holes through the back of my head. I have my suspicions…

"Ankha, are you okay?" I heard Lucky said to Ankha.

"I'm fine!" she responded fiercely.

Um…now I wouldn't say I'm dense, but I could tell someone is jealous and Ankha is doing a very poor job of hiding it. But, the better question is why? ...the more I think about it the more I keep drawing a blank; I'll ask her about it later.

"Uh, Ohkan…hate to interrupt this touching moment, but…we have stiffs closing in at six o'clock!" Dingo said with urgency.

I looked behind me and saw that we definitely had a group of zombies made up of bears, squirrels, cats, and dogs; we need to get going. I looked back to Isabelle who looked back at me with worry.

"Isabelle stay close, we're heading into the mansion." I said to her.

She nodded in acknowledgement and stayed close to my side as we all ran to the entrance of the mansion.

*Rawr*

*Hiss*

Two strange dog, cat…bat hybrid things? Whatever they are, they are blocking our way and those zombies' behinds us don't plan on asking us out for lunch. Thankfully, Copper and Harriet easily disposed of the two creatures clearing our path to the front door.

With a loud crash we barged through the doors and immediately closed them behind us.

"Eagle, Dingo! Find something to barricade the door!" I shouted to my two comrades in arms.

We started to search the foyer looking for anything to barricade the double-door, but then we heard screeching coming from upstairs. We looked up to see two monkey zombies hollering and screeching at us before they leaped from the stairs attacking me and Eagle.

"Shit!" I said as I tried to get my shotgun out in time, but it was too late. The monkey landed on me pinning me to the ground. "Agh! Get off!" I tried to wiggle myself free, but the monkey proved too strong and kept me pinned to the ground.

"Dammit!" I heard Eagle said as landed on the floor pinned by the other monkey.

"Don't worry man, I got you." Dingo said as he got his handgun out and shot the monkey from the side in order not to accidently shoot Eagle.

I looked back to monkey pinning me down just to see it ready to bite down at my throat. But, before it could bite my jugular, the monkey was stopped in its tracks by the hooked ends of two swords and thrown off my body only to be impaled by a spear courtesy of Lucky.

"Little N! Are you okay?!" Ankha asked with concern.

To be honest, my back felt a little sore from the impact, but that will just a whiners Ouchy compared to what that monkey was aiming for. "Yeah I am, thanks for the save Ankha."

"You're welcome Little N, I won't let anything happen to you."

I smiled a bit after hearing that, "Heh, likewise."

"Sir! While the monkeys were attacking you, Harriet, Coco, Isabelle and I barricaded the front entrance."

"That's great, now we don't have to worry about those stiffs getting in." I breathe a sigh of relief. That was stressful, but that doesn't matter now; we're deep in enemy territory and we have a mission to complete.

"Mayor!" Isabelle shouted as she ran up to me. Her tears have dried up, but she had some small cuts and patches of dirt on her body. "Mayor, I don't believe it…you came for us?"

"Hey, Mellow and its inhabitants are my responsibility. When I found out some of you were kidnapped, I decided that I wouldn't idly by as the fate of some of the villagers and my own secretary remain unknown to me.

"Same goes for us sugar." Harriet added as she reloaded her shotgun.

"I would be a failure as a police officer if I didn't do my duty to protect Mellow!" Copper said with a salute.

"Being friends with the mayor means where he goes I go too." Ankha said simply as she walked to my side and stood a bit close to me.

"But, how did all of you get here?"

Damn…I haven't thought of an excuse for that, but thankfully Ankha came to the rescue.

"That's easy; Little N insisted to the two agents over that they will take us along. You should have seen it he argued with them for over an hour before they finally relented."

"Wow…really?"

"Er…yes I did! I can be quite persuasive when I need to be." I said with a forced smile. Normally I would have an excuse for a situation like this, but the thought didn't occur to me thanks to all the excitement from earlier. Thankfully, Isabelle bought the story.

"Your really are the best mayor! You put your fellow villagers first before yourself; we are truly lucky to have a mayor as selfless as you are!" She said with overflowing praise.

I felt my cheeks flush in embarrassment. I honestly do my very best to support my town and its inhabitants. Not because of mayoral duty, but more like me repenting for leaving the town on my trips.

"You're welcome…"Ankha whispered as she left my side to talk with Lucky.

I should thank her later, but first I have some questions to ask Isabelle, "Isabelle?"

"Yes mayor?"

"You don't have too, but I would appreciate that if you can tell me what happened to you when you were in the mansion." I asked carefully as possible in order not to upset her.

Isabelle's mood quickly changed from her cheerful self to a downcast demeanor. "Oh that…" She grew silent for a few moments as she took a sudden interest in her feet.

Seeing this worried me; maybe she doesn't want to remember right now? "Like I said you don't have tell me if you don't want to."

She looked back at me with tears threatening to break out again, "No…its okay…it's just, just…I was so scared!" Like a dam bursting her tears poured out along her face as she hugged me once again. Was I a source of comfort for her? Regardless she broke down in front of me crying into my chest as I can only pat her back and speak words of comfort, so she can calm down. No one in the room dare spoke, not even Ankha, for she can only imagine what the innocent Isabelle has gone through. After a few moments of crying and comforting, Isabelle calmed down enough so she can speak clearly. "I woke up in a lab…"

"In a lab?"

"Yes…but I was soaked from head to toe in some sort of liquid. I looked around me and saw tubes lined in a row each containing a different villager. I checked behind me and saw I came out of one of the tubes, but I didn't know how I got out in the first place. Looking for a way out I walked through one of the doors and was met with a horrifying discovery. It was a room full tubes containing the same villagers I saw in the previous room, but there were a whole bunch of them. It wasn't long before I was met with tubes containing multiple copies of…me." Isabelle took a pause she shuddered at the memory.

"I decided I seen enough and left the room in a hurry. Returning to the room I woke up in I left through the other door, but I met another problem. The lab I woke up in is huge and complex I was afraid that I will never find a way out what's worse I felt like someone or something was watching me the entire time. I wasn't sure how long I was down there, but after what seem like hours I found an elevator and used it to reach the surface. Once I did, that's when I realized that I was in a mansion. I wander through the halls of the mansion until I ran into trouble. The zombies noticed me and gave chase, I couldn't believe what was happening at the time, but my instincts were screaming; telling me to run. So I did what my instincts told me and ran. I eventually lost them, but at the same time I became lost as well. Each hallway, each room was filled with dangers and every time I had to flee only becoming more lost in this terrible mansion. Before I knew it I found a dead garden and used the area to rest from all the running. But…then a flying bat-like creature crashed into the dead garden and wanted to return me to the lab. Shocked and scared from the encounter I ran once again unintentionally running into this foyer. Knowing that this is the front entrance of the mansion I ran through these doors to the outside, but imagine my shock and relief when I saw you and everybody else running towards the entrance of the mansion." Isabelle took a small breath of relief as she finish recounting her story.

I noticed she stopped crying, she must feel like a giant weight was lifted off her shoulders. "Thanks Isabelle, this is useful information." She gave me an infectious smile I knew she was happy that she helped if only the information department.

"Ah right boss man, so what do we do now?" Dingo asked shortly after reloading his handgun.

"We need to find that lab, save the kidnapped villagers, and destroy the lab."

"Sounds like a plan, so which way we go?" Eagle asked.

"Well, like I said before. I came through that door over there, but that's also where I ran away from the giant bat thing." Isabelle added pointing towards the double door below the archway connected by two stairways.

"So I guess we should take a different route then." I looked around and saw the only another path we can take is up the stairway into the door above. "That seems to be our only option." I pointed out.

"There doesn't seem to be any another option…" I heard Lucky said as I saw him look from the barricaded door to the door above. "And I really don't want to meet this flying bat creature Isabelle mentioned. I had a few bad encounters with bats…"

"I don't think that's the main problem, Little N how are we going to find the lab? This mansion is huge it would take forever to search it entirely." Ankha said expressing her concern.

"Well if there is one thing I know about mad scientists and their labs, they usually keep them underground, so there must be a stairway or elevator that leads down there. Most likely the latter considering Isabelle said that she got to the mansion via elevator ride."

Ankha narrowed her eyes at me; I didn't need to be a mind reader to know what she was going to say next "We're going to wing it, are we?"

"Well to be honest, I don't see any other way to find the lab. We don't have the layout of the mansion, so we're going have to take a path and stick with it."

"Fair enough"

"Okay then, that's enough planning, guys let's head through that door and hopefully we might end up on the right track." Everyone nodded in agreement, but before we headed upstairs I remembered something very important. "Oh I almost forgot! Isabelle?"

"Yes mayor?"

"I believe this belongs to you" I reached down into my jacket's pocket and pulled out Isabelle's hair band.

"My hair band! I lost it when those zombies attacked me."

"I figured you might miss it so I took the liberty of bringing it with me. To be honest, it's thanks to your hair band that we were able to find you and this mansion."

"Really?"

"Really"

"Wow…I guess that makes it even more special…"

"Special?"

"I explain another time, but thank you for bringing it back to me."

I smiled, "You're welcome" taking a small moment Isabelle wrapped her long hair back into her signature hairstyle making her head look similar to a bell once again. "Alright, continuing where we left off, to the door!"

/

Ankha's P.O.V

I mentally smiled; Nacho wasn't the best in trying to follow up his previous words after being distracted. I know because once I remember asking him for furniture that was small enough to fit in one corner in the room, but a short moment later Chow invited him to his home; something he couldn't refuse for any fellow villager. After the house visit he came to me with the opposite I asked of him which resulted in me giving him a friendly reminder. Of course embarrassed, he quickly ran off to find me a more suitable piece of furniture for my home.

Following him, we opened the door leading to a hallway. I can feel everyone is wary and I don't blame them. Those disgusting clones of villagers from different towns look little to nothing to their original counterparts, and I don't know that many people outside of Mellow.

"Everyone stay alert, be ready to shoot hostiles on sight." I heard Nacho say; I can only call him Little N so many times in my head. Anyway…we stuck together as a group covering all angles as we went along the hallway and onto the next room. The next room seemed to be some sort of game room judging from the pool tables, dart boards, and few arcades in the room.

"Well I certainly didn't expect this." I said as I looked around with my swords ready. Everyone seemed to be doing the same thing as well. I took a side glance at Nacho and saw that Isabelle standing a bit too close to him than I'm comfortable with.

"Lady Ankha?" I heard Lucky question out of earshot of the others.

Grr…I do not need this right now, "What is it Lucky? You know not to call me that in front of other people!" I yelled quietly in order not gain the attention of the others.

"You're making that face again…" he said with a nervous tone.

"What…Face!"

"Ehm…your jealous glare face"

The moment he answered I could feel my rage swell, but it quickly went away as I realized that he was right and I felt the color drain from my face. I quickly changed my attitude, "Uh…sorry, was it that noticeable?" Lucky only nodded in confirmation, argh…thankfully he caught me before anyone else could notice. I could only sigh I already knew where this is heading, "Lucky before you speak, I'll have you know, yes I'm currently aware that I'm getting jealous of Isabelle being close to Little N we went over that outside when I said I was fine. And, NO I do not wish to talk about it."

"But, Lady Ankha…"

I can already feel my irritation on the rise "I SAID I do not want to talk about it, okay?"

"Okay…but…"

"But what?"

Lucky then pointed behind me, "Uh…"

"Ankha is everything all right?" I froze in place, and my mind started to race. How long was he watching? Did he see me lose my temper? Did anyone else see it? Ugh I don't need this right now!

"Yes Little N?" I said doing my best to hide my nervousness.

"I saw you having a private conversation with Lucky and…you look stressed." He said gently. I could tell he was trying to be careful, Nacho always treaded lightly when talking to people with emotional stress, but he has nothing to worry about. I on the other hand am. Maybe if I tell him that it's personal he might drop it after telling me I can talk to him about it.

"It's alright; we're just going over something personal. By the way did you hear anything?"

To my relief, Nacho shook his head, "Nope, not a word I just saw you getting increasingly angry. It must be something you really want to keep to yourself." You have no idea Nacho…

"Yeah, I haven't really sorted it out yet and Lucky brought it up, so…yeah I really didn't want to talk about it."

"Fair enough, but if you want to talk about it you know what to do."

"I do"

"Good to know, besides we are done searching here and we need to get a move on. I need you to be focusing Ankha; the last thing I want is for you to be taken off guard just because you are thinking over your personal problems." He then placed his hand on my shoulder; despite the fact he was wearing combat gloves I feel the warmth emitted from his touch.

"Don't worry I'll leave those problems back at home, we have villagers to save."

He gave my shoulder a pat before returning to his hand back to its original place, "That's what I like to hear. C'mon let's go."

We left the room, despite the protest of Dingo who was complaining that he was still playing one the arcades; honestly, why did he think it was a good time to play games is beyond me.

…

We traveled a bit into the mansion, it was surprisingly quiet compared to the commotion we went through outside. Things remained uneventful as we passed another hallway lined up with doors occasionally checking few of the rooms, so far nothing turned up just bedrooms, stairways or more hallways. I mentally sighed in frustration, we are getting nowhere at this rate.

" _Lady Ankha are you alright?"_ Lucky was communicating mentally with me; being a guardian Lucky can talk to me telepathically as I can with him.

" _I'm fine just annoyed that we are getting nowhere fast"_

" _I know…it's boring really"_

" _There has to be something of interest in one of these rooms; perhaps a library?"_

" _I guess, but if you ask me I don't think of any of these doors would lead to a library"_

Lucky has a point; this being a mansion and all, the library must be in a large room meaning it might be behind a double door. Fortunately for me, I managed to see one in the distance.

"Hey Little N, I think we should checkout behind those doors" I then pointed to the double doors ahead.

"Umm…I don't mean to sound rude but why?"

"We been walking around for a while now passing all these hallways, but none of the rooms we checked helped us get closer to finding the lab. We should at least investigate the rooms with double doors as well, who knows they might be a room that hold a clue on where to find the lab" I explained causing everyone in the group save for Lucky to form a small O with their mouths.

Nacho took a small moment to think about what I said "You have a point. Alright let's go check that room out"

Taking my advice Nacho led us to the double door I mentioned, while I mentally hoped that a library lied beyond those doors. With the creaking of the door putting us on edge as Nacho slowly opened the door. He opened it enough so he can look inside, after a few seconds he looked back to and nodded telling us it was all clear. Walking in I could mentally celebrate in glee, for the room we walked into was what I hoped; a library.

"A library…" Nacho said as he looked around taking in the surroundings. The library itself is large; reminding me of some villagers I knew that decorated their houses to resemble those places where silence is valued greatly. "What do you know? You're on to something Ankha, I know by experience that scientists have a tendency to leave notes behind when they study in places like this. Especially if you work where I work…"

"Oh yeah, like when Hermit forgot his research paper in a Moby Dick book. Oh god he was freaking out ha ha ha ha ha…ah good times" Dingo added, I could tell he quite enjoyed the memory albeit a little too much.

"Now now Dingo, that paper was important to him and his research. Although, I never knew what it was for…" voiced Eagle, as he began to ponder the contents of the mystery research I had no clue about, but just listening to their conversation perked my interest.

"Guys focus, we need to split up to cover more ground. This library is big, but not that big so there has to be something around that might help us find the lab"

"Um…do you think that's a good idea?" Harriet asked with concern, and honestly I don't blame her. I watched enough horror movies to know splitting up can be a bad idea despite the benefits of covering more ground.

"Y-yeah, I think we should stay together" Coco agreed. My best guess is that she doesn't want to be left with the short end of the stick.

"Don't worry I know what I'm doing; Dingo, Eagle, Harriet, Copper, and Coco I want you all to head down the east wing of this library and search for clues; while Ankha, Lucky, Isabelle, and I check out the west wing."

"Whoa man, you're putting everyone who has a firearm save for yourself into one group, while you'll stick around the duo that is essentially armed with old school weapons. Are you really sure that's a smart idea?" I could feel my anger rise again, he just said in a way that my and Lucky's weapons are outdated and not suited for the task at hand, but before I could berate him Nacho beat me to the punch.

"That will be enough Dingo…" he said his eyes narrowing to an icy glare. "You have your orders; now go."

Dingo apparently got the message, for he dropped the subject completely and told the others he is grouped with 'you heard him, let's get a move on' and left on their merry way.

"C'mon Ankha" Nacho said gaining my attention. "We got some work to do"

…

An hour passed, and still we found nothing. All four of us were searching the bookcases high and low, checking between the pages of books in order to find any sort of clue. Unfortunately, most of the books are worn and ruined. It actually makes me wonder how long they been here. I continued my search of the west wing occasionally sneaking glances at Nacho who has Isabelle close to his side. I shouldn't be jealous, but why am I jealous? Their relationship is simply friendly nothing else. I played with the possible reasons in my mind, but the only idea that made sense is I think Isabelle is trying to take him away from me…WHAT! Why would I even think that! Isabelle is an innocent, naïve pup who will do no wrong intentionally and besides we're actually good friends. However, the more I think about it the more Lucky's words echo in my mind _'Ankha…it's not healthy to hold your emotions to yourself. If you like him you should tell him. I want to see you happy Ankha.'_ I guess I did fall for another haven't I? Bladeius…forgive me I have just given my heart to another…but, it doesn't mean I have to get all emotional when I do confess my feelings…although there still the chance of rejection, however, I think I'll tip the odds in my favor when possible. Then to put a wrench into my plans, I remembered something important…the only thing that can ruin it for me…I don't like it, but if we do get together he has to know…whether he wants to stay with me or not is his decision and his alone. With a small sigh I decided to push those thoughts away for now, it isn't the time to think about love; rather I need to focus on finding any documents that can help us find the lab. But, I might as well do it as myself; our mayor 'loves' it when I tease him from time to time.

After a small bit of scrutinizing I found a door that had a small glass window, and imprinted on the window in bolded black letters 'Office.' My curiosity was piqued, there has to be something in an office especially in a library. Checking the door, I found that it's unlocked, so without resistance I opened the door and checked inside, but to my surprise the room was a mess with papers scattered across the floor covering the floor in a thin layer of wasted trees; a shame really. The office itself looked worse for wear as time was not kind to room, for most of the furniture looked withered and old along with the paper. I walked into the room not really expecting much now, if there was any information about the lab I doubt it would have survived the time lapse. I felt the crisp and brittle paper crunch beneath my feet as I walked around the room it's almost like walking on the orange leaves of fall.

" _This isn't good; I may as well be wasting time here. I doubt I can find anything that is in good condition after all this time."_

Moving my search to the office desk; in which the desk itself is surprisingly in a decent condition. The desk itself is rather unremarkable, looked pretty much like any old desk you can find in a business building. I guess the only thing that stands out is the large window placed behind the desk. I guess the person who worked here wanted a good view of whatever is outside.

"Okay what do we have in here?"

I opened one of drawers of the desk, but only found more paper. I sighed in frustration, none of the papers proved useful. Despite them being reports, they are all about maintenance of the house and the books in the library. I close the drawer and moved on to the second one, but this one proved to be more helpful.

 _Subject report # 47_

 _Subject #: 027_

 _Codename: Chariot_

 _Species: Lagomorphs_

 _Sex: Male_

 _Cloning process is a success once more. The subject in question will remain comatose until all alterations are complete. This is necessary because most clones destabilize and devolved into beasts that are no more useful than cannon fodder. However, this will be different. The subject shall be given armor to help stabilize its cloned body. This isn't the first subject to be call Chariot, but this will be the one to succeed where all others became failures. To think, that a amazing beast such as this can be created from a clone and the original's most powerful physical genetic trait! The Doctor is more ingenious than we thought; with creatures like this we have the potential to rule the world!_

 _Subject report # 48_

 _Subject #: 027_

 _Codename: Chariot_

 _Species: Lagomorph_

 _Sex: Male_

 _This is a bit disappointing. The armor did nothing to keep the clone's body stabilized, but it did prevent it from turning to goo, so it isn't a total loss of work. Thankfully, the creature listens to basic commands making it a great foot soldier. Unfortunately, the beast seems to have trouble walking often stumbling. The armor seems to have an imperfection as well, for scans have shown a weak spot in the near upper right corner of the breastplate. Production of the Chariot line would have to stop here until we can figure out all the bugs. For now, this project can be considered a success. I have created a diagram showing the creature's abilities and the weaknesses I mentioned before for future reference._

I moved the paper to the back and found the diagram of the creature mentioned in the reports. Apparently the creature is just a bit taller than Lucky, and is cover head to toe in armor. The established fact there is a weak point in the armor is shown clearly as well. I looked over the other papers in the drawer and they're all about similar creatures. Deciding to save these documents for later I rolled them up and held them under my left arm. This is the only problem of my mummy 'shirt'; it's among the only thing I'm wearing right next to my undergarments much to my embarrassment. Thankfully, my 'shirt' is long enough to cover that private area, so no unwanted eyes can take a glance at my choice in underwear. Actually, I'm surprised no one figured that out yet; not even Nacho. The thought immediately made my face grow warm; I would die of embarrassment if he figured that out.

Getting back on track I closed the second drawer and moved onto the third and final drawer. Opening it, I found something that made me smile; it was a large rolled up paper. Hoping for the best I opened up the paper and discovered it was the layout of the mansion itself! Nacho and the others will want to see this. Rolling up the paper and putting it with the other papers rolled under my arm I left the room in a small gleeful hurry.

"Little N!" I yelled gaining the attention of Nacho and the others. "I found something!"

"What did you find Ankha?"

"Well, I manage to find reports on the creatures and the layout of mansion" I said as I handed over the papers to him. "As we already figured out the zombies are clones of villagers, but what I read in the first two reports; they were making an army." Nacho froze when he heard they were making an army.

"Dear god…this is worse than we thought." He then scanned through the papers only to stop on the diagram of a bat creature which caused Isabelle to jump back a little. "Something wrong Isabelle?" Nacho asked in concern.

"It's him…it's him! That was the creature who tried to capture me!"

"Now that we know what he looks like, we can prepare ourselves accordingly." He then rolled out the paper holding the layout of the mansion. "Hmm…here it is! According to the layout there is a secret elevator on fifth floor that heads to the lab. Unfortunately, it's on the second half of the mansion and that's quite a walk away. Who's knows how much trouble we're going to meet along the way." Nacho then looked at me and gave me a smile that made my heart flutter, "Thanks Ankha, now we can regroup with the others. Lucky! Can you hold this for me?"

"Sure Nacho" Lucky said with a chipper tone in his voice that cause me to smile in amusement. Lucky then took all the papers I gave to Nacho and stuffed them into a bag. Now that we finally know where and how we're going to get into the lab we walked together in the direction where others should be with me walking next to Nacho as we both nodded at each other with a small smile.

Unfortunately… our feeling of accomplishment didn't last long as we all heard the sounds of breaking glass and screams of terror…


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Chariot

Author's note:

Here you go another chapter in this house of the dead cross overish story. In this chapter we are going to have a boss fight with a slightly altered first boss from the first game in the series. Funny thing is that boss is stupidly easy once you actually pay attention to what the game is telling you. I'm surprised when I was younger, I didn't figure out where his weak point was until I saw the paper onscreen that clearly read weak point. I'm even more surprised that I didn't even notice the blinking red pot on his body as it was telling me 'shoot me moron!' Anyway this chapter is only going to be from Nacho's perspective; just a heads up. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this chapter and tell me what you think of it.

/

Nacho's P.O.V

Running and running we have to get to our friends! My thought process is racing because we have no idea what's attacking them! Shit, shit, shit! I could feel myself panting from all the running, but I have no time for resting, not now. Though to a bystander it would seem I haven't worked out a lot, but the truth is; Ankha and Lucky are really fast! They are right in front of me and Isabelle as we tried our best to keep up with them. Geezus, this kind of running speed will put Leonardo to shame…okay maybe I shouldn't tell him that Ankha can easily outrun him in a foot race; that would destroy his pride. Anyway…as we got closer to the other end of the library the sound of shotgun blasts grew louder and Dingo's swearing can be heard in full clarity.

"God damn it! Where's the weak point on this metal asshole!"

"Well yelling at it isn't going help now is it?"

"Can it Eagle! You're not doing much to it either!"

"Sugar, if you don't shut your trap I'll strap you to a chair and turn your hair into public art!"

"Sirs! I would recommend you do what she says! Trust me; she will see that promise through."

I could only mentally sigh at the voices. Of all the times to be arguing now is not the time, but I also wondered what kind of public art Harriet can do to someone's hair. I shuddered at the thought…maybe its best I don't find out. Anyway, we closed the distance and at this moment we stopped in our tracks and saw the creature attacking our friends. To sum it up, it is a giant armored rabbit wielding a steel halberd covered in blood. "Aw…shit" I said almost inaudibly. I pulled out my shotgun getting ready to fight, but Ankha stopped me from rushing in.

"Little N! Remember the papers you handed to Lucky?"

I paused for a second before forming an O with my mouth. She's right, how could I forget? This thing is the Chariot creature I saw in the reports Ankha found. If I remember correctly, the diagram showed that the creature's weak point is a section on the breast plate. "I got it! I'll tell the others; you and Lucky try to break the section of armor in the diagram, so we can hit that thing where it hurts. Ankha and Lucky nodded as they took off to fight the armor monster.

"Mayor!" I heard Isabelle yelled behind me.

"Yes Isabelle?"

"Be careful…"

I gave her a look and shrugged my shoulders, "I'll try, and just find a safe place to hide okay?"

"Okay"

She ran off to find cover and with that worry out of my mind I ran off to meet up with the others. "Guys!" I yelled gaining their attention.

"Ohkan! Finally, you decided to show up!" Dingo said sardonically.

"Well it wasn't easy running from one side of a library to another you know?" I responded in equal sarcastic tone.

"Whatever, as you can plainly see we have one heck of a zombie in front of us, and I would like to point out it is covered head to toe in bullet proof armor! On a side note would you mind telling your Egyptian theme friends to get out of the way? We can't get a clear shot!"

"Yeah that's because I told them to distract that thing."

"May I ask why?" Dingo was obviously trying to keep his frustration down and I can feel the gaze of all the other shooters on me.

"So they can keep that thing at bay, so I can tell you where to shoot it."

"Where?!"

The sounds of clashing weapons and moans of pain are dwarfed by the universal yell from the group save for Coco who to my best guess is hiding somewhere. "There's a structural weak point in the upper right corner of its breast plate. If we manage to punch a hole through it then we can kill it."

"Sir! How do we do it with Ankha and Lucky in the way? I do not want to accidentally hit a civilian" Copper said in concern.

Looking back, to check on Ankha and Lucky's progress I noticed that they are handling the monster quite well despite the monster being a bit taller than Lucky. The mentioned mummy dog is currently using his spear against the creature; clashing his pole arm with great force keeping the armored monster occupied and Ankha running towards its backside. However, before she reached it she slid on the ground using her swords to hook the creature's feet throwing it off balance and causing it to fall hard onto its back with a loud clang. I'm starting to think they actually have it under control.

"Lucky now!" Ankha yelled with command. The mummy dog wasting no time pointed the tip of his spear to the creature's breastplate and plunged it in breaking through the weak point and flesh of the monster causing to shriek in pain. It flailed its arms in panic as Lucky dug his spear deeper into the creature.

Suddenly, the sounds of moaning and revving of a chainsaw are heard. I looked around along with the rest of my friends as we tried to pinpoint where it was coming from. I looked to the distance door where we first entered the library and saw that it is slowly being cut in half. My eyes widen as I yelled out, "Stay frosty, we got zombies incoming!" Everyone looked to where I was pointing just as the door broke down and a pack of zombie dogs lead by a zombie gorilla holding a chainsaw started running straight at us.

"Oof!" as if to add to the problem Lucky became distracted from the pack of zombies giving the Chariot a small window of time to kick him off.

"Lucky!" I yelled as he crashed into a wall effectively breaking it revealing the hallway we were once in.

The Chariot slowly got back on its two feet and pulled the spear Lucky plunged in its body out and throwing it to the side. Green blood leaked out of its wound as it looked on at us with anger in its eyes.

"Ah great…it decided to bring back up!" Dingo yelled as he reloaded his shotgun.

"Sir! What are your orders?"

I could only mentally curse to myself as I look from the Chariot to the pack as I tried to formulate a plan of attack as both inched closer to us. _"Crap, shit, crappy shit! This is bad! If we split up then we'll lose fire power against Chariot, but if I don't then that swarm will overpower us! If only lucky was still conscious then he can help keep that armored monster at bay. Heck, he was actually close to killing it."_

"Little N! We need a plan now!"

Shit, time to act now, "Ankha I need you Copper, and Eagle to take on the swarm."

"Are you sure?" Honestly, I think Ankha's speed and agility can be useful against Chariot; as shown with her teamwork with Lucky, but considering the size of the swarm I think she'll be needed to help Eagle and Copper to take on the horde.

"Trust me; those two will need your help"

"Okay, but start shouting if you need help"

"Noted"

Ankha turned to Eagle and Copper, "Alright you two, all I need you need to know is to shoot at the zombies not me; I can easily dodge your shotgun shells, but should the chance I would be at least scrapped by your fire…" She then gave the two a sharp glare that from what I can see easily sent shivers down their spines. "There will be a hell to pay…" once that was said; she instantly took off heading towards the horde head on leaving the two men behind. Eagle and Copper looked at each other with worried looks before they joined her in the fight.

I would laugh at their plight if I wasn't already under attack at the moment. Dingo and Harriet walked next to me with their shotguns readied; I looked at both of them with a smile as I readied my own shotgun and took aim at Chariot, "Alright you freak, time to turn you to scrap!"

As if it was responding to my threat; the creature waved its halberd at us as if it was trying to say 'try it.' I examined the monster checking where we need to aim on the beast and I found the spot where Lucky first thrust his spear into the monster. The armor now has an open gap leaving the armored zombie an open access to his vulnerable insides. "Guys! His weak point is exposed! Aim for the gap in his armor!" I yelled, Dingo and Harriet took note of my words and saw the open space in the armor. They started firing at the exposed section causing the monster to stagger back while a small waterfall of blood leaked out of its chest. However, after the first couple of shots the creature began to cover his chest with his free arm and began to walk wildly at us swinging its halberd around. I already knew that the creature will take note of its exposed section and will try to keep it covered, so in turn I had to make him remove his arm.

"Shit, it's covering the gap!" Dingo said angrily as he took a couple more shots at it in frustration.

"Then stop wasting ammo sugar." Harriet responded as she stopped firing and got ready to dodge.

Chariot finally had us in range of its halberd and in turn swung the metal weapon, but unfortunately for the monster we managed to get out of the way in time with me sliding underneath its swing. Taking aim I shot the armored zombie in the head; though it caused no damage to him, the force of the shotgun blast staggered him forcing him to remove his arm from his chest leaving it wide open for another attack.

"Dingo, Harriet! It's wide open, shoot it now!"

"Got it!"

Taking a few more shots the blood flowing from the gap grew worse as it almost started to flow freely. Chariot had a look of panic on its armored face as he covers his wound once more, but blood still leaked from underneath his arm showing that he is still weakening.

"Huh, this is surprisingly easy." Dingo commented, only infuriating the monster.

Rolling back to Dingo side I gave him a very brief explanation, "Well if I last check the reports; this is the only one they made and it's still has problems"

"Then why are we worried about this thing?"

"Because it can still fight"

During our conversation, I noticed the monster looking around the area, but for what? Then suddenly it eyes locked on something behind us. I traced where he was looking and saw in horror that he was looking straight at Lucky, whom is being taken care of by Isabelle and Coco. It wanted some kills under its belt before going down, so it decided to target those who cannot fight back.

"Oh no you don't!" I yelled as I immediately shot it in the face staggering him and leaving his wound wide open, but this time all three of us shot at the gap causing him to walk back a few steps. However, instead of green blood, dark red sludge dropped out of the wound giving a sickening splat as it hit the ground.

"Oh barf…" I heard Dingo say.

"That's really gross…" Harriet added.

Honestly, I seen worse, but I'm more surprise they found this disgusting despite the fact we were blasting zombies outside the mansion. I guess it's just the texture, because I don't blame them; it is really hard to stare at what fell out for very long.

*Muuuaaaahhhh!*

The creature roared as it dropped its halberd and begins to flex. Okay this is strange, why would it be doing that? Then as to answer my question the entire armor broke off the monster revealing the zombie within and the sight shocked us. Chariot, without its armor was nothing more than moving flesh in the shape of a rabbit. The face was so contorted I found it impossible to tell who was the donor who supplied this thing with their D.N.A.

*RRRaaaaawwww!*

Yikes, I think we really pissed it off, but this can work in our favor. Chariot no longer is wearing its protective armor; meaning we can now pump this thing full of lead. Finishing my thoughts, the creature immediately charged at us with the plan to plow straight through us. I had only four shells left in my shotgun before I need to reload, so I need to make them count. Taking a short glimpse at Dingo and Harriet I saw they are started reloading. Great…now I have to hold this thing off; speaking of which…he already started to close the distance between us much to my dismay. I should really stop mentally converse with myself in tense situations. Raising my shotgun I first blasted the creature's two legs tearing away the melting flesh from its bone causing it to stumble from the lack of support. Its soulless gaze slowly floated to my direction as I shot it once more, but this time in the face sending it back a few steps. Taking one last shot I shot it in the chest; blowing a messy hole in its chest. The creature struggled to keep moving, but unfortunately for him I heard the sounds of cocking guns next to me. Know what was going to happen next I gave a small smile as I took out shotgun shells and casually reloaded my shotgun, for each shell I place in my gun a shot rang out blowing another hole into the creature.

Four…

*Bang*

Five…

*Bang*

Six…

*Bang*

Seven…

*Bang*

Eight…

*Bang*

Nine…

*Bang*

And ten…

*Bang*

I looked back at Chariot who by this point is currently reduced to nothing, but a skeleton with small patches of meat left on its body.

*Gr-gruh…*

"Sorry pal…but you need to be put down" With one last blast from my shotgun sent the skull flying off the body. Without a head the body made a few more steps toward us before falling to the floor and melting into a large green puddle that eventually disappeared. "That guy should have worked out more; nothing but flabby chunks of meat."

"Euh…don't remind me…" Dingo said as he looked like he was trying to hold in his lunch.

I mildly laughed; honestly to me I find it funny when people I know are suffering from some sort of inconvenience…well when it's actually funny, I'm not a cruel person you know? "Well your stomach can rest easy now; I don't think there is anything left of it, but the armor."

"Thank god…I wasn't sure how much longer I can stand just looking at that thing…pieces or otherwise."

"Whatever…anyway I wonder how Ankha is doing with the horde?"

As if to answer my question I felt two furry hands cover my eyes along with the words, "Guess who?" in a slight seductive tone. Huh, that's not a tone I hear often regardless I gave a small smile as I decided to play along.

"Hmm…I don't know…but these hands around my face do feel surprisingly soft, so…could it be none other than Ankha gracing me with her presence?"

"Well I wouldn't quite say I'm gracing you…" she then removed her hands from my eyes as I realized that she left some zombie blood on my face. I turn to face to see Ankha standing in front of me revealed to somewhat covered in green blood along with brandishing a sheepish smile. "Um…sorry?"

I started to laugh; she really got me. I was now covered a bit in zombie blood thanks to her, but I didn't mind; although, I still wish we brought some towels along. She may not show it, but stuff like this bothers Ankha; this and also considering that this shade of green does not look good on her. "It's alright; I should have expected at least some blood on you."

"Yeah, I tried my best to minimize the splatter of blood on my clothes, but I suppose it was evitable. Thankfully, I wore clothes I don't mind getting dirty."

That explains a lot, "Well fashion has no meaning on the battlefield, that's why we usually wear uniforms, but in some cases we have to fight in our best clothes; it's quite a pain actually."

"I could only imagine"

"Anyway, I hope Eagle and Copper didn't cause you too much trouble"

"They weren't a problem; they actually did their very best to avoid shooting where I was"

"Well you did threaten them…"

"There's a good reason for that"

"Which is?"

"I like to keep my skin scar-free as much as possible thank you very much"

"Fair enough"

Our conversation just dropped off like that as stupid as it sounds, but I didn't care because a moment of silence passed over us and I found myself lost in her gaze. I know this sound cliché, but I guess I can't find any better way to say it. Her amber eyes are simply beautiful yet it also reflecting the fierce fire that burns in her soul; the soul of a warrior. It's funny really we known each other for quite a while, but we kept secrets from each others. Though its normal to have secrets mine isn't one that can be easily said; however, Ankha hasn't really told me some of hers like how did she learn how to fight with swords. Well a little mystery never really stopped me from loving her, but it puzzled me nonetheless. Ah great… now I want this whole fiasco to end, so I can rustle up the courage to tell her how I feel, what happens afterwards I'll just have to wing it.

…

Hmm…why does it feel like I'm forgetting something?

*Ohhh…that wall was much thicker than it looked*

Oh right Lucky…wait, "Lucky!" we both yelled at the same time as we turn and ran to the broken down wall that lucky made. Lucky was slowly being helped up by Isabelle and Coco who had no trouble keeping him on his feet.

"Ow…didn't expect that thing to have such a kick. It's been a while since I been knocked out; ow forgot how much this hurts"

"Goodness! Have you gotten into fights before?" Isabelle said with concern and honestly I don't blame her. Lucky doesn't look like the type who would start a fight and lose; not that he be the type to start a fight.

"Well…er not intentionally; look when you're my size people think your tough and strong, so some of those people try to pick a fight with me."

"Oh my! You must have been the center of all kinds of misunderstandings."

"To be honest I'm actually pretty strong, but I don't really like to fight pointless fights."

"That's good; just as long you didn't start them."

Lucky then walked towards his spear and picked it up. He examined it for a short moment before holstering it on his back. With this done we then regrouped back into one team; I can tell by the look on everyone's faces that they are relived that this small skirmish is over. I for can agree, but who knows what other horrors lurk in this mansion?

"Lucky do you mind giving me the papers? I need to look over a few things."

"Sure Nacho, here you go." Lucky reached into what I could perceive as a pocket and pulled out the papers Ankha found. I took the papers and examined them; skipping the papers involving Chariot I stopped on the file I was looking for.

 _Project: Hanged man_

 _Goal of Project:_

 _Create an aerial unit that can command the lesser units from the skies. This unit must be intelligent, able to fly, and have some combat abilities._

 _Possible species:_

 _Hawks_

 _Eagles_

 _Vultures_

 _Bats_

 _Side note:_

 _Finding the D.N.A to make this creature will prove difficult just as much as creating it. Make sure your very selective in whom you find as suitable donors. The doctor will be very displeased if this project turns into a failure. He said very clearly that his investor will have all our heads if this ends up achieving zero results._

I moved on to the next paper. This grew more and more interesting apparently someone is investing in these creatures, but who? I doubt whoever it is will be name in these documents, however if the zombie army project is still in motion then someone is still here; maybe they have some information they like to share with us. Skipping the next few papers due to them being about the failures, I reached the document where they described a successful subject.

 _Subject Report # 67_

 _Subject #: 041_

 _Codename: Hanged Man_

 _Species: Bat_

 _Sex: Male_

 _Finally! The project is a success! It was a long and difficult process, but we finally managed to create an intelligent creature capable of flight. When the creature was born it asked questions on who it was and what is its purpose. We filled in what is expected of the creature and what kind of training it would go under. Interestingly the creature didn't mind, but I guess that would be expected from a blank slate. We are currently going to monitor its physical prowess and abilities. More reports will be made on such an amazing beast._

So, that's the name of the bat creature that Isabelle described. Hanged Man…I get the feeling there is a pattern with the names of these monsters. Moving on to the next paper gave me a brief summary of the creature's abilities. Apparently, it's capable of controlling other mutated bats, can see things from three miles away and can carry up to five human beings. In addition to having bullet proof wings, its claws can punch through iron and sheets of steel. In the subject of weaknesses the creature doesn't have any glaring ones, but it is lightly armored due to heavy armor on its body can reduce or prevent him from flying. So, in turn the armor doesn't protect from heavier rounds and well placed shots to his chest or head will harm the creature. Also, bats under its control are somehow linked to him, so should his health start to fail all the bats under his control will die.

"Ohkan, did you learn anything interesting?"

Taking my eyes off the paper I looked at Dingo who seems just as curious as I about the paper in my hands.

"I'm learning more about the bat creature that attacked Isabelle. If that thing is looking for her then we better learn about his weak points."

Dingo nodded he too agrees with the idea, "I get yah; know thy enemy right?"

"Right"

"So what does it say for our batty friend?"

"Well other than being capable of flight and slashing us into ribbons. Hanged Man, as the creature is named is weak to conventional gunfire, so shots to its body and head are the way to go."

"What about its wings? Shouldn't we clip those?"

"Wouldn't recommend it; it says that they are bullet proof, so we're going to need something harder than a shotgun to clip that guy's wings."

"Dammit! They always fix the obvious don't they?"

"Apparently…"

"So in short, ignore wings just shoot face and body, right?"

"Pretty much, but it also said that it's able to control mutated bats as its own personal army, so watch out for that."

"Got it"

"So did the rest of us…" Eagle said flatly surprising the both of us.

Dingo and I looked around us and saw everyone was listening in our conversation. Now that I think about it…I should have just got everyone to listen to what I'm saying in the beginning. I'm making a note of that in the future just to save time.

"So, now that we all learned about Hanged Man's abilities and weaknesses we can deal with him easily, but now the bigger question where do we head next?"

"Oh right we need to find that lab right?"

"Sir, we cannot destroy the source unless we know where it is!"

"If it can put this nightmare to an end we should at least know where it is."

"Well don't leave us in suspense where is it?"

Ankha, Isabelle, and Lucky gave me some looks that said you have to tell them anyway regardless of how long the walk is. I sighed as I pulled out the map of the mansion and pointed to the fifth floor on the right side of the paper. I was given a mix of jaw dropped, indifferent, and O faces as everyone else in the group stared at where I was pointing at and where we are.

"Yeah…the way to get into the lab is through this elevator, which happens to be on the fifth floor, so yeah…we should probably start walking." I said in a rather uneasy tone. I have a feeling getting there is going to be pain, but the sooner the better right? I mean what else can happen?


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Memories between friends

Author note:

Hello fellow Animal Crossing fans or simple readers to another chapter of this story. Today chapter is special because it's much longer than the normal chapters posted in this story (right next a certain other chapter if you been paying attention). Unlike some other chapters this one will show some history between the two main characters Nacho and Ankha. The beginning of our fellow mayor of Mellow should be close to the introduction in new leaf, but I also tried my best on what are the character's thoughts on the situation. Anyway I hope the memories shed some insight on these two character's relationship along with a certain other feline. But, anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and feel free to tell me what you think of it as well. So, thanks for reading and enough sentimental stuff let's get to the story.

/

Nacho's P.O.V

After dealing with Chariot and its undead friends we continued our way around the mansion trying to reach the fifth floor of the mansion. We ran into some zombies at certain points, but we quickly disposed of them in a timely manner. Honestly, I'm surprised how much variance there is to these zombies; I haven't seen one repeat yet. Eventually, we ran into a moment of calm on the third floor taking advantage of this calm we decided to take a moment of rest in one of the rooms which fortunately was big enough to fit all of us. Being wary as we are we first scouted the room for any zombies, but thankfully there wasn't any. We all took different spots in the room with Isabelle and Coco sitting on the floor, Eagle and Dingo reclined into two chairs after dusting them off, Copper and Harriet sat together against the wall conversing about their personal lives, Ankha and Lucky found a couch to rest after the mummy dog made sure there wasn't any dust left, and as for me I was content leaning against the wall after placing my bag next to my legs.

Rests like these should be taken when possible, but I was trained not to let my guard down so I spent most of time with wandering eyes.

"Hey Mayor" Dingo said out of the blue catching my attention. "Come over here"

Knowing that he won't leave me alone I walked to where Dingo and Eagle is, "What do you need Dingo?"

"Well considering we are taking the time to get a little R'n'R I think it would be a good time to talk."

"That depends…what do you want to talk about?"

Dingo and Eagle looked at each other before returning their looks to me as they both said, "Your life as mayor"

I sighed, I saw this coming a mile away, but I guess if it satisfied their curiosity, "Well…you see it started on a train ride to the town of Mellow. Back then all I wanted was a nice place to relax and call home…"

/

 _I remember it clearly…_

 _I never thought I would have found a nice place in the midst of all my work. As much I didn't want to take the time off they persisted that I do and thinking back now I didn't know how tired I actually was. I could feel the train slowly rocking me to sleep, but before I could nod off I was awakened by a cat who asked that he can take the seat in front of me. He seemed like a nice guy so I said yes. He told me his name is Rover and to make a long train ride short he asked me questions that made wonder if the guy has his head on right._

 _Once I reached Mellow, I stepped off the train and exited the train station, but imagine my surprise when I saw a small group of animals waiting for me; one panda, two cats, and one dog. I saw them talking amongst themselves, but I couldn't really hear what they were saying that is until the dog spoke out in the crowd._

" _Ok, Everyone! Here we go… Ready? And… From those of us in Mellow…"_

" _WELCOME!" they all yelled out simultaneously._

 _I became confused by the sudden greeting; I didn't think the arrival of a new guy such as me would warrant such a welcome, so I simply gave a small smile and waved my hand._

 _The dog walked up to me and from what I can gather she seemed to resemble a shih-tzu and her head thanks to the hair band looked like a bell. Though from the way she dressed I can tell she has an important job or something._

" _Mayor! We're so happy you're finally here!" she said happily causing my eyes to widen in disbelief and panic._

 _I don't remember signing up for position, "Y-you're mistaken!"_

" _Um… Oh, you're such a kidder. Well, a sense of humor is an important trait for an elected official to have. You said you would arrive on this train, and here you are!_

 _Wait what?! Didn't their mayor send a photo or something? "I didn't say that!"_

" _You can't fool me! No one else got off the train! You're a funny a funny one, aren't you? Tee hee!"_

 _My mouth dropped as I realized she's right. No one else got off with me, so in turn I have no way to get out of this misunderstanding, but some part of me told me not to give up, "Hey! Wait!"_

" _Well, let's continue this discussion at town hall, shall we?"_

 _She's not listening anymore…_

" _Here's a map of Mellow for your reference, Mayor Nacho." She then handed me a map that looked similar to the one Rover showed me back on the train, but this one seemed to have a blinking spot on a specific building._

 _The absent minded dog seem to take notice of my fixation on the spot, "That flashing spot there is the town hall, so let's head that way together, shall we?" she finished with an adorable smile._

 _I sighed with defeat; maybe if I go along with this eventually the real mayor will show up and clear everything up. Before I made my way to the town hall I took a quick look at the animals who greeted me after I stepped off the train station. The panda seemed aloof constantly having his eyes closed, but at the same time he looked like he knows a thing or two about martial arts. One of the cats is black though what breed escapes me, she seemed to be pretty upbeat as she skipped away happily, but what really caught my attention is the Egyptian style cat. I never seen anyone look like that before and honestly I kinda like it; although she looks like she doesn't want to be here any longer then she needs to be. With people like this running around I suppose everything isn't as bad as it seems._

 _However, I did not want to waste time, so I decided to get to get this over with I walked with absent-minded dog to the town hall which looks like a pretty normal building to me; nothing really standing out. When we reached the front door she pulled out some keys and unlocked the door, so we can both walk inside. Inside the building was just an over glorified office fit for two. Nothing really stand out to me in here, but if I'm going to be mayor for the time being then I better get used to these surroundings._

" _Mayor, this town hall will be your base of operations." She said breaking me out of my thoughts. I would say something about this not being the first time I had a base of operations, but…I didn't want to end up killing this girl._

" _Oh! And I completely forgot to mention I'm on staff here too!" Really now? What kind of position does she hold in the town hall?_

" _I'm Isabelle, your secretary, and I'm here to help you in any way I can." Well at least she wasn't dumb enough to forget her name, but she'll be working with me? If she managed to hold a position like that I guess she's knows what she's doing…well except realizing I'm not the new mayor! "But if I may be frank, I was surprised to see someone as young as you step off the train." Was that a insult or a complement? Knowing what little piece of her personality I seen I don't think she means any offense, but I mean c'mon she looks younger than me!_

" _I mean, our former mayor held the position for many, many years and was quite set in his ways. But youth is a breath of fresh air. And exactly the new image our town needs! You're perfect for the job!"_

 _I don't know you seem to have more energy and youth than I do…but of course I don't have the guts to say that out loud…_

" _All right…Of course we need you to get started right away on your work as mayor."_

 _Hooray…_

" _Therefore, first we must complete your resident registration. A mayor really should be a resident!" she laughed as it was some sort of joke. Well duh, I was going to ask about that when I got here, but the sudden news of me becoming mayor halted that now did it._

" _So what is your name, Mayor?"_

 _Are you freaken kidding me…_

"… _Oh, right, Nacho. Duh. Ok, I have your name. And next…"_

 _I'm taking a guess here before she completes her sentence; she forgot something again did she?_

" _OH NO! THIS IS BAD!"_

 _Ow…right on the money, but at the cost of my ear drums._

" _I can't believe I completely forgot something so vitally important!" Actually I can make list of things you forgot so far, but I don't have a piece of paper or a pencil on me. "In order to register you as a town resident, we need your address for the form!" she said in a fit of panic._

" _That is a problem…" I said with some actual concern. I should have some place to live when I got here from the get go; what the heck!_

"… _Nacho, do you have a place to live yet?"_

" _No I don't, but are there any homes that are vacant?"_

" _There aren't any vacant houses here…but you can build one!"_

 _Say what now?_

" _We really should have you decided where you're going to live before we proceed!" Well at least she takes the initiative. "And here I made you come all the way to the town hall for nothing. I apologize for being so flaky!"_

" _It's alright, but where are we going to get the permission to do that?"_

" _Um, on the other side of the tracks on Main Street, is Nook's Homes, the real-estate office… Ah yes! This might make more sense if you take a look at your map!"_

" _Well that's convenient…" I look at the map as saw it was now blinking at the railroad tracks._

" _See the railroad tracks at the top of the map? Head north from there to get to main street."_

" _I see…"_

" _Some fresh air and exercise would do you good. A trip to Main Street may be just we both need!" Hold on do I look tense to her? "It'll give me a chance to stay here and continue your registration, and you need to find Nook's Homes. Once you've got a place to live, please come back here and let me know right away!"_

 _Despite the odd situation of it all I nodded and quickly left the building in search of Nook's Homes. Returning to my way to the train station I saw the path and walk through it after a few seconds I found myself in Main Street which from taking a quick glance I could tell it was underdeveloped._

" _Wow, this town is definitely in need of some work…" I said to myself as I walked down the street, and no sooner when I did I found a lit up sign that said Nook's Homes. "Well that was easy…"_

 _I entered the building as saw a rather fat raccoon in a green sweater vest standing around and thinking to himself. Long moment short I asked him to help me out with my housing problem and he agreed to help. I took him back to the residential area and show him where I want to build my house; it is a nice spot between two sides of one river. Of course the time it takes to build an actual house is very long, so he helped reserve the space by placing metal rods tied with rope around the designated area. But, of course I need to pay him for basically everything, however, he couldn't come up with the exact amount I need to pay him at that moment so he decided to tell me later, for I still had things to do and I should drop by his store again once I dealt with it. Though having the spot is nice and all I'm pretty sure I need somewhere to sleep and Nook saw this. Giving him a moment he quickly set up a yellow tent with a cardboard mailbox to boot. Well it's something I suppose and it's better than sleeping in the cold, so it would have to do. Nook eventually returned to his shop after some brief words. On my own again I made my way back to town hall, but along the way I bumped into one of the villagers that greeted me at the station; it was the black cat._

" _Hi, you're the new mayor right?"_

" _Uh yeah, that's me. You need something?"_

" _Not at this moment no, kitty cat. I just want to introduce myself, my name is Kiki nice to meet you mayor Nacho!" she said with joy. From what I can tell, she as normal as it's going to get around here._

" _Thanks, I guess? This is pretty sudden to me. It's almost staggering"_

" _I know how you feel. Not everyone can handle surprises well, so I can imagine how you feel with the position of mayor on your shoulders. But, I know you will do a great job. Just remember to hang in there, kitty cat. Because you know, as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained."_

" _You got me there. I'll do what I can." At least until the real mayor shows up._

" _Great! I hope we meet again soon, see ya!" With that said she skipped away happily._

 _I can certainly say she was definitely someone I can talk to. Kiki was it? I'll remember to send her a letter later. Checking the sky I noticed it was a bit into the afternoon I think about 4:35 p.m. I continued my way to the town hall and made it inside. Once I made it inside Isabelle was a little surprise I made it back so soon and asked if I found a nice place to call home. I told her yes and she hopes that my house is completed soon, for according to her living in a tent can be very tiring. She has no idea what sleeping conditions I been through just to make a tent look like a luxury mansion. Anyway she nearly completed the registration; she just needed my birthday. I told her what day, month, and year is my birthday. Isabelle thanked me and gave me a town pass card which works like an ID card, but it also proves I live in Mellow. Since the name of the card is a mouthful it has the honor of being call the TPC and interestingly it always kept up to date. Some more bits of information was told here and there before Isabelle finally got to the last thing on her mind; she wanted me to participate in a ceremony that commemorates my arrival._

 _Knowing my position I don't think I will be skipping that event anytime soon. Isabelle explains that it would be held at the town plaza like many other events in the future. What I needed to do is plant a tree in the square, so it would later grow to become a great symbol for the town. Cut forward to the plaza I found myself standing in a dirt square with Isabelle surrounded by every villager in town. I saw Kiki, the panda, a weird duck, a very royal-looking pig, a old yet gentlemanly lion, and finally her…the Egyptian cat. I don't know why but she really caught my attention. She seemed to be faking a smile…but why? However, I was unable to focus on her, for I have a something that needed my full attention._

" _So…take this sapling!" Isabelle said handing over a small tree sapling to me. "Ok, Nacho. Now plant the sapling by hand, and put your heart in it!" With sapling in hand I placed the baby tree into the hole and patted it down in order to make sure the whole bottom was underground. Once that was done, sounds of applause surrounded me causing my face to flush red and that day though I didn't know it at the time is day my life changed forever. "Mayor Nacho! Congratulations! I hope this tree grows just as strong and lively as Mellow! All of us are looking forward to the changes you'll make to our beloved town!"_

 _With a smile I said, "I'll give it my all."_

" _Mmmm, well then… the tree has been planted, so please relax for the rest of the day, Mayor! I have other tasks to attend to, so I'll head back to the town hall… Please spend the rest of the day as you like. Look around town ad greet your new neighbors! And if there's something you don't understand about Mellow or you just don't know what to do… I can give helpful advice on living here at the town hall. Feel free to come and ask anytime, Mayor! Good work, today!"_

 _The excitement died down eventually and everyone left the plaza; leaving only me and some time to burn. Taking this time I decided to take in the scenery and wander around a bit. During the walk I ran into various villagers found at the ceremony the first being the Panda. He was an interesting fellow, he introduced himself as Chow and honestly he was a pretty friendly guy. We chatted for a bit before going our separate ways. This process continued and I met each villager, the pig Chops, the weird duck Pate, and lastly Lionel the elder lion. Each of them was interesting in their own way; I actually hoped to meet these quirky characters again another time. However, I noticed there was one villager I haven't met yet; the Egyptian dressed cat. I actually wondered where she would be, so I made it my unofficial mission to find her and greet her._

 _So, I spent the rest of the day walking around town actively searching for the elusive exotic feline. My search proved to be mostly fruitless, but my luck changed when I ran into Kiki again._

" _Oh, hey Nacho! Nice running into you again."_

" _Hi Kiki, I have a question for you."_

" _Oh sure, what do you need?"_

" _I met everybody in town except for one, and I been having a hard time finding her."_

" _Who are you looking for, kitty cat?"_

" _An Egyptian dressed cat, do you know where she is?"_

" _You mean Ankha? Yeah I seen her, she's in her house near the train station. It's immediately on your right once you exit the station."_

" _Thanks Kiki"_

" _You're welcome, but I have to warn you about something about her."_

" _And…what would that be?"_

" _Ankha doesn't really socialize too much, so she might act unfriendly towards you. But, in my experience she's not a bad person, I can tell during the few times she asked me to leave her alone."_

" _Does she normally shut herself away from everyone else?"_

" _Ever since she moved in, but I don't like the fact one of our own is doing this to herself."_

" _I doubt I can help with that problem. I just wanted to meet her, she…really caught my eye."_

" _Well when you look like you belong in Ancient Egypt, kitty cat. It's pretty hard not to get a few glances here and there. Anyway you better get a move on if you want to meet her I'm not sure how much longer she's going to stay in her house."_

" _Right, thanks Kiki you done your mayor a great service."_

" _Oh, don't be silly. You be doing us a great favor, so please when you talk to Ankha try to get her to open up. Alright?"_

" _Alright"_

" _Good, with that said I wish you luck, kitty cat." She then skipped off another direction away from me. I made my way to the Ankha's house thanks to the directions Kiki told me and along the way I began to ponder what kind of person the Egyptian cat might be. From the few times I saw her, she was faking a smile which added fuel to the fact that she mostly keeps to herself not really venturing in the residence area for too long. From what I can gather from Kiki she isn't anti-social, but you would think with all these friendly faces that she will at least be friends with one of these villagers. I reached her door and with a few knocks on her door I heard a voice from the other side Ankh's voice._

" _Who is it and what do you want?" she said in a nearly demanding voice._

" _It's the mayor. I wish to talk to you." I said mentally worried at what I'm getting myself into. At first there was silence, but the silence was quickly broken by the sounds of a door being unlocked,_

" _Come in" she simply said from the other side of door. Opening the door I entered the small hut like house trying to think of what to say to her. However, once I was inside I was surprised by the interior of her house; it was basically a model of tomb in Egypt! Walking pass the pair of sphinxes and miniature pyramids I found the owner of the house herself, sitting regally on her throne with one leg across her lap and staring at me with watchful eyes._

 _She is truly beautiful, but does she reflect this in her personality? Only one way to find out, "Hi, my name is Nacho, I'm the new mayor, but uh you already knew that." Smooth…like sand paper._

 _A frown formed on her face she didn't seem too happy, "Is that all you came to say? *sigh* I suppose introductions are in order." She stepped of her throne and walked towards me only stopping at a few feet in front of me. "Mayor…My name is Ankha and as you can see I don't have much patience to waste on fools, me-meow."_

 _What great start she is only a few inches smaller than me and already she is proving to be very scary "Then let me get to my point. I want to talk to you…"_

" _No"_

" _Look hear me out"_

" _I said no, leave my house now…"_

 _Kiki is right she is being unfriendly, "Ankha, please don't make me leave there are things I wish to talk to you about."_

" _We have nothing to talk about" she growled. Her patience is wearing thin; I have to choose my next words carefully._

" _Kiki is worried about you…"_

 _That seem to have to done it; her eyes widen before she followed it by avoiding eye-contact with me, "The naïve kitten…what right does she have to intrude in the affairs of others?" she then return eye-contact looking at me not with a gaze if anger, but with a gaze of sadness, "How much did she tell you?"_

" _Not much…just that you don't socialized very much."_

" _I thought as much…"_

" _Are you two friends?"_

 _She gave me a slight angry look, "With her? Hardly, we're just acquaintances at best, the little kitten didn't know when to leave me alone."_

" _I think she just wants to be your friend."_

" _Ha! Like I want to be friends with her, she's better off being friends with the other residents."_

" _Why would you say that? She's just worried about you."_

" _Yes and thanks to that worry, there's a rumor floating around that I'm some sort of recluse!" she shouted. "I can't walk outside my own house with being stared at like some sort of weirdo…"_

" _If that's the case why did you show up to both my arrival and the tree planting ceremony?"_

 _Ankha gave a deep sigh, "Because…I wanted to see the new mayor."_

" _Say what now?"_

" _Did I stutter? I said I wanted to see the new mayor! Did you hear that one you deaf peasant!"_

" _Loud and clear ow…but why?"_

" _Look I may not go out much, but I like to keep tabs on all important events scheduled. I'm a chic cat like that, me-meow."_

" _Huh, so despite avoiding the other residents you managed to keep yourself well informed."_

" _Indeed, unlike certain other residents I know…"_

" _Would you like to talk about it?"_

 _Ankha crossed her arms, "Well…despite your terrible sense of fashion and the fact we just recently met. You have proven to be…tolerable despite my best efforts to get you to leave my house. But, don't you have duties that need to be done?"_

 _I scratched the back of my head in slight confusion from the fusion of insults and praise she sent my way, but nevertheless I have nothing else better to do today and maybe this is my chance to get her to open up, "Not really, I'm free for the rest of the day, so yeah I'm all ears." After I finished that sentence I swear I thought I saw a small smile appear on her face._

" _Very well…"she then walks towards her throne and sat on it; returning to the same position I saw her when I first entered her home. "Now…sit on the floor in front of me peasant, as I elaborate on how I feel on every single resident who lives here."_

 _Huh, so she's using me to vent out her frustrations, although, I wished she didn't call me a peasant though, "Whatever you say, your highness…" I said sarcastically. However, what I didn't expect to see is her eyes widening at my remark not in anger, but in surprise. Unfortunately, this small moment didn't last as she quickly shook her head and gave me a stern glare._

" _You're testing my patience, fool. If you do not wish to hear what I have to say then the door is right behind you."_

" _Er, sorry…I won't waste anymore of your time" I said as I walked and sat in front of her throne on the floor. Sitting there I can tell why she wanted me to sit my rear end on the cold floor; she was looking down on me as a high and mighty ruler and I'm the dirt poor beggar._

" _Now where do I begin? Oh right, let me tell you about…"_

Present day…

"And…she goes on to list all of her current complaints about the other residents and honestly I'm surprise how much she had to say. Because before I knew it the moon was high in the sky and I was a greeted with a much calmer Ankha."

Dingo and Eagled stared at me with bewildered expressions from the utter absurdity that was my first day in the town of Mellow. "Holy crap man. What kinda of weird luck you were born with? I mean damn…that was a crazy what are the odds of that happening?"

"Nigh impossible, if you ask me…" Eagle added.

"Well regardless of the odds I'm glad now that it happened. I met many great people and became quite close friends with some of them. I even was called a pro listener due to my tendency to listen to other people's problems. And now here I am trying to save my neighbors and other villagers from a threat I didn't give two shits about until it hit home."

"Wow that's deep dude…"

"It's nothing really…but I think that's enough story time right now. We need to get back to work…but before we go any remaining questions?"

Eagle raised his hand, "I have one. Just how did listening to Ankha's problems lead to the friendship you have today? From my perspective, it didn't look like you hit it off like you claimed."

"I can answer that" Spoke Ankha, as she walked towards our group. "I didn't show it at the time, but when he actually showed he was listening to me drone on about little insignificant complaints I felt that someone actually cared for what I had to say. Sure we didn't became friends straight off the bat, but thanks to his visit I felt I had someone I can confide in and I became more open with the other villagers. Thankfully, that also got rid of that dreadful rumor as well."

"And our friendship continued to grow though there was one snag at one point, but we worked through it together."

"I rather not remember that embarrassing point in my life."

"Yeah, I'm not sure why you tried to do that."

"Very dumb reasons…"

"Well that's in the past, so don't worry about it."

"Yes I should, besides we have more important matters to attend to."

Dingo stood up from the chair he was sitting in and got his shotgun readied, "Yeah, yeah no need to tell me twice. I'll be waiting at the door for the rest of you guys, just holler when everyone is ready."

He did as he said with Eagle soon following after him. Soon the others took notice at gather their weapons and walked towards the door. Ankha and I looked at each other with determination and after getting our weapons we joined everyone else at the door.

"Everyone ready?" I asked. Everyone nodded in confirmation which put a smile on my face, "Alrightly then, let's go!"

/

Ankha's P.O.V

And like that we continued our progression to the fifth floor. Zombies continued to impede our progress, but each one was either blown to pieces by Nacho and the others with their shotguns or impaled and cut into ribbons by Lucky and yours truly. We took a set a path running down many identical hallways with melting corpses left in our wake, but with each zombie Nacho and everyone else with fire arms gun down the more I grow worried with their ammunition count. I'm not sure how many shells they used on these zombies, but if they aren't careful they might find themselves out of ammo in a bad situation.

*Groan*

"Hiyah!" With another quick strike I decapitated another zombie in front of me with ease. Life is strange sometimes, back when I was a kitten if you told me that I would be fighting foot soldiers, warlords, mystical beasts, and cloned undead I would have my parents throw you into slavery for making up wild stories. But…thanks to the path I was given I'll be inclined to believe you. I have lived for many years…and met and lost some good friends to time itself including my own family. I never knew why I was given this curse of eternal life, and why I kept walking down the path of time; never knowing what was going to happen next. There were times I wished I never had this curse, but as of now two men have given me a reason to keep moving and how weird it is that the second man's code name happens to be the first man's name.

Ohkan…a man who fell into obscurity despite what he has done. But not to those close to him, not me. I still remember what he has done and if it wasn't for him, I would have lost all reason to live many life times ago. It's funny really that Nacho would remind me of his lesson, so many years later. I felt my eyes drift to him as we once again started walking after the previous zombie assault. Nacho, a simple unassuming man, who was dragged into becoming mayor of our town, became the best mistake we ever had. But, something still bothers me about him. Why does he trigger these memories? As I acknowledge it before I never really thought back to those painful memories until Nacho came into my life. For a time it actually scared me how much he reminded me of those two and because of that I felt I have grown too attached to him. So, I decided to move out of town and while I was packing I would try and avoid him, for a part of me knew that he would be able to convince me out of it. This worked for a few days, until Nacho decided to look for me.

/

 _I was hiding out in the museum's fossil exhibit; no one seems to look for me there, so it was my go to hiding spot. I remember staring at the fossils as I waited for the day to pass by. I'm not sure why I gravitate towards this exhibit, maybe it was because I felt like I was a living fossil myself. My mind wandered, I thought where should I go? Am I doing the right thing? Is he going to miss me?_

" _Ankha!" yelled a voice I didn't want to hear._

 _I immediately froze in place, eyes widen as I turn to face the man I was trying to avoid this past week. No one knows where I was at the time, so how was he able to find me?_

" _There you are! Sheesh is this where you been for the past week?"_

" _Yes…"_

" _I'm glad I found you I was beginning to get worried."_

" _You were?" I said somberly as I looked away from him. I was so close…_

" _Huh, what's wrong? Is something bothering you?" he asked with concern._

 _Concern…the fool…he ruined everything, but for some reason I'm glad he did, "Who told you where I am?" I responded in a low voice._

" _Kiki did, she said she saw you constantly coming in and out of the museum."_

 _Of course she did…, "Did she say anything else?"_

" _Yeah…she claims that you plan on moving, is that true?"_

" _If I am, do you plan on stopping me?"_

" _Actually…I was wondering why you didn't tell me. We're friends after all, you should at least tell me."_

" _Mayor…there is a reason why I didn't tell you." Nacho…if you say that you want me to stay I will… "I cannot say what these reasons are, but it's because of these reasons that I plan on moving, just as I have done before."_

" _Wait you moved before!"_

" _Yes…from a few other towns, but Mellow is where I stayed the longest. You see there was a golden rule I gave myself when I moved into towns is to never get too attached to anyone. And so far this never happened in the previous towns I was in, but then I came into the town of Mellow and I almost decided on a permanent stay. Unfortunately, a few years later, you came along and ruin everything."_

" _Wait ruin, what are you saying Ankha? We had many good times together, I even helped you become friends with the other residents and all rumors about you are disproved. What did I do to make you want to leave?"_

" _Being my friend Nacho. You opened me up to the rest of the town and now it will be even more painful to leave."_

" _But, that's not a bad thing! Ankha, if that's your only reason for moving, it's an unreasonable one. As selfish as this sounds, Ankha I won't let you leave Mellow!"_

 _I smiled, he wants me to stay, but I have to make sure under the right reasons, "Are you saying this as the mayor?"_

" _No, I'm saying this as your friend!"_

" _That's all I wanted to hear…" tears started forming at the corners of my eyes as I walked towards a bewildered Nacho. If happiness wasn't already flowing through me I would have mentally laughed at the look of his face. Once I was close enough to him I enveloped him in a hug which seems to have caught him off guard. I wasn't able to hold back the tears any longer as I held onto him tightly letting loose my emotions in the form of twin cascading waterfalls. I could feel him return the hug and his embrace felt warm just like his… "Sorry…"_

" _Ankha?"_

" _Sorry…I'm sorry…I didn't mean to throw away our friendship…it's just…it's just…"I jumbled my wording, this was an emotional moment for me and I'm glad Nacho is the only one here to see this._

" _There, there…it's alright…"_

" _No it's not! I purposely avoided and planned to leave you, for something so stupid!"_

" _But you're not anymore right?"_

" _Yes…"_

" _Then there is nothing to worry about, besides I already have forgiven you the moment I saw you again." I blushed a bit after hearing that, but for the next few minutes I stood there hugging him as he continued to comfort me. However, for a split second I swore I saw a red helmeted man staring back at me. Needless to say I cancel the idea of moving and decided to become a permanent resident of Mellow all thanks to him. My original plan is ruined, but that's okay I done enough traveling, for I found something worth staying for._

/

Present…

My mind snapped back to reality as I quickly found myself face to face with the man on my mind, Nacho.

"Hey, are you alright Ankha?" He asked with concern. "You just stopped in your tracks and just spaced out."

Well this is embarrassing, "Goodness! How long was I reminiscing?"

"For almost an hour, what were you remembering?" I could feel everyone's eyes on me which didn't make me feel any less embarrassed by my situation.

"A changing moment in my life…" I said simply earning an 'O' expression from Nacho; he seems to know what I'm talking about.

"I see, well don't let it distract you we're about to head outside and who knows what's waiting for us out there."

"Right, it won't happen again."

"Great" Nacho then turns to face a door that lead outside. "Alright guys, we're heading outside. We need to cross over an archway to reach the stairs on the other side. I already confirm that this is the shortest route, but with Hanged man flying around we have to stay alert. So, I want everyone to keep an eye to the sky." Everyone nodded myself included, "Okay let's go." Nacho carefully opened the door leading into the cold windy outside. One by one we all stepped outside and immediately found ourselves on a stone walkway leading to the other side of the mansion. The sky itself is cloudy blocking all chances of the sun showing its radiant presence.

We cautiously made our way across the pathway keeping our eyes peeled for any possible sightings of the winged bat creature. Everything seemed to be going well as we reached the halfway point.

*Screech!* *Screech!* *Screech!*

We all jumped at the multiple noises and we all turn to face the source of the racket only to be faced with a swarm of bats heading straight at us. Thinking fast I ducked to the height of the side rail and waited for them to pass over. I kept hidden beneath cover until I heard screaming.

"Ah!"

"Let me go!"

It was Isabelle and Coco; they're in trouble! After the bats passed I took out my bow and aimed in the direction of the screaming. I saw the creature itself, the Hanged man, in all of its horrid glory and in its two clawed hands are the struggling bodies of Isabelle and Coco.

"Heh heh ha ha, nobody leaves here alive!" It said in an echoed voice due to wearing a mask. "Heh heh…I told you foolish canine you cannot escape me, and you brought another genetic material as well. This almost makes up for the fact you ran away from us."

"Give them back to us now!" I heard Nacho scream as he pulled out his handgun and took aim.

"Oh yes the mayor…you and your little brigade are proving to be quite a threat, so I'm afraid your mission ends here." The creature flew high into the air before dropping down and kicking the middle of the walkway with its right foot breaking it into two.

We all started to panic as the floor started crumbling beneath and we all took immediate action as we all took different sides of the path with Lucky, Nacho and I taking the way we came from while the others took the path we were heading. Seeing the path behind falling apart before our eyes we ran as fast we can to the door.

"Mayor!"

"Isabelle, Coco!"

*Bang, Bang*

Nacho tried to get a few shots on the creature, but missed causing the monster to laugh at his failure. "Heh heh, nice try gun junkie, but a futile effort. Now die!" Laughing manically the creature swooped at Nacho and to my horror managed to kick him off the walkway. "Ha ha ha! Have a nice fall!" With this said it left the area with Isabelle screams fading in the distance.

"Nacho!" I yelled as I stopped in my tracks and ran in the opposite direction hoping that I can still save him, but before I can even get close Lucky grabbed by the arm and held me back. "Let me go Lucky! He needs our help!"

"Lady Ankha! We have to get out of here!"

"No! Not again! I'm not leaving him to die!" I yelled as I broke free from his grasp.

"Ankha no!" Lucky protested, but I ignored him as I ran as close I can to the edge, for the crumbling started to slow down. Peering over the edge I saw that he was barely holding onto the edge.

"Ankha?"

"Nacho! Take my hand!" I said desperately as I extended my arm for him to reach, but then I felt the ground beneath me starting to give way.

"Ankha get out of here! There is no need for you to die with me!"

"Shut up! You're coming with us no matter what!"

"Ankha! It's going to collapse, just go!"

"No! Just grab onto my arm and I'll pull you up!" Nacho seeing that I won't give up trying to rescue him he tried to reach for my arm, but the brick his remaining arm is on finally gave way. Everything seemed to slow down when it happened, my heart stopped, as I saw him slowly fall out of my reach. "Nacho! No! This can't be happening…no! no! no! I just made up my mind to tell him how I feel!" I didn't want things to end in tragedy again, not like before. So, I attempted to jump off the crumbing structure after him, but once again something got in the way. I felt something tightly grabbed me around my waist and pulled me away from the edge; it was Lucky again. He is the only one around that can stop me and this time he held me even tighter knowing my current state of mind. I struggled against his harsh embrace, but eventually I lost all will to fight back as he took me to the door.

As he did I saw Nacho free fall the four stories we climbed together straight into a water canal with a loud smack. If my heart wasn't broken enough I saw a small school undead fish gathering where he landed with a red cloud soon covering the gruesome scene.

Why…why did this have to happen…


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Revenge

Author's note:

Here we go another chapter and I really like how this one came out. I know you'll enjoy this chapter dear readers, for this will be the fight against the Hanged man. If any of you knew this will share some similarities to the actual fight in the game, but with some pretty distinct differences. Also in this chapter we get to see Ankha's wrathful side which is bad for those who cross her. This is a personality trait I can imagine her having, but you will have to be a complete idiot for making her beyond mad. What happens when she gets beyond mad? Read and find out! I hope you enjoy this chapter and remember to tell me what you think of it. Signing out!

/

Lucky's P.O.V

I closed the door behind us as the sounds of collapsing stone eventually ceased. Lady Ankha seemed to have stop thrashing in my arms and I decided it would be a good idea to let her go. I watched her as she slowly sat on the floor tears clearly running down her face. She is purely devastated and it hurts me to see her like this, but what could I do? Nacho was already close to falling before we could get to him. There was nothing we could do…just like the other times.

"Like the other times…" I mumbled. This is the third time she lost someone she loved, someone she wanted to be with and we were powerless to prevent it. As her sworn sibling, my heart goes out to her as it did many years in the past. It was the death of her second love that caused her to shy away from relationships and didn't really talk to anyone except for me. Eventually, we went our separate ways on her request. We kept in touch during those times, but there wasn't a day I wasn't worried about her. I gave a small sigh and looked back to her.

She was pounding the floor with her fist, "Why! Why! Why!" she screamed as the floor became the unwilling vent for her sorrow and frustrations. Ankha raised her fist and slammed it down into the floor over and over again. At the rate she was going I swear she was going to break the floor boards and I knew I had to put an end to this. In one quick motion I stopped her fist causing her to look up at me. The tears already ruined her eyeliner as it ran down her face along with the tears themselves. She gave me a fierce scowl and started pounding my chest with the same ferocity she gave the floor.

"Why did you stop me? H-He was right there!" she cried as I slowly felt her fists lose their power. "He was…right there…"

I stood there in silence as she eventually stopped punching my chest plate. Just sitting there on her knees I knew she wanted me to say something, but there was nothing I can say that could comfort her. Instead I took a knee and gave her a deep hug staying quiet as she eventually calmed down.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"No…I just lost another, but this time I never got a chance to confess."

"…Sis, I'm sorry that you have to suffer another loss, but we have to move on."

"I moved on long enough and I truly thought that I found love again, but I guess I was never meant to find happiness…"

"Don't say that! Ankha, after all we been through I forbid you to say such things!"

"Lucky what's the point of us living?" she asked catching me off guard.

"Ankha, where are you going with this?"

"I've done so much with my eternal life…I accomplished many things that could've been done in multiple lifetimes and I honestly enjoyed all of it, but in the end I never felt happy…and do you know why?"

I felt reluctant to answer, but I knew I had to, "Why?" I asked.

"Because…I was alone…"

Alone? But she has friends now and for Osiris sake; she has me! How on earth can you feel alone? "Sis…I never knew. You know, I would have immediately traveled any ends of the earth if you would have asked."

"No Lucky that's not what I meant what I mean is…" I noticed she looked nervous and a blush was forming on her face. "I needed someone not just anyone. I needed someone I can embrace, someone who will tell me that they love me, and someone I wished to see by my side as I wake up in the morning after a night of passion." She explained causing me to blush as well as I realized what she means.

"Oh! I see, you wanted a boyfriend, but not just anyone. You wanted someone like Bladeius, or Ohkan."

"Or Nacho…"

"Yeah…"

"Lucky…be honest with me. If I would have confessed to him; would he understand?"

I smiled underneath my bandages, "Sis, even though I just met him and didn't know him for very long. I have no doubt he would understand regardless if he accepted your love or not."

Ankha giggled a bit, "Heh, how long has it been we talked to each other like brother and sister instead of master and servant?"

I gave a small chuckle, "I try to find the most appropriate times when to call you what."

"I noticed"

…

A silence grew between the both of us as I helped her up off the floor. Once she was standing I took out a spare roll of bandages and gave it to Ankha, so she can dry and clean what remaining tears she had left along with the ruined makeup. Her face stilled looked messy, so I brought out my drinking water and unscrewed the top. I carefully dab a part of the badinage with the water and with her consent rubbed her face in order to completely wipe away all traces of the eyeliner. After she was done Ankha return the roll to me and I placed it back into the bag.

"Heh…here I am in a mansion full of zombies and I thought things couldn't get worse. And now the cherry on top of this sundae of problems is now I don't have any eyeliner to help give me my signature look back." She flatly stated.

" _Well at least she's back to her old self again…hold on…I think…yup! I remembered to pack it!"_

"Oh well…there's no point in worrying about appearances in a situation like this. I'll have to bear with it."

"Actually...I brought something that can fix this little problem." Reaching into my bag I pulled a small pink box.

Ankha gave me a surprised expression that eventually changed into a smile, "Lucky, you're a life saver!"

Faster than I can see she quickly snatched the make-up box from me and opened it up. To be quite frank I'm honestly surprised how quickly and accurately Ankha can reapply her signature look even though it's just the eyeliner. Eventually, she returned the box to me, "Wow, you're getting really good at reapplying your eyeliner."

"Please, you know that this is my signature look. Of course I would be an expert at applying it after doing so for so long."

"No argument there, it really brings out your eyes."

"It's subtle yet exotic; a lot of men melt like butter if I put a bit charm into it."

"Yeah, I can imagine…because I was there being a bodyguard."

"Those were some fun times, but that's enough reminiscing. As much as it pains me to say this we have to finish what Nacho started" She said as she tried to not let her voice wavier. His death is still affecting her, but Ankha is now determined to complete the mission Nacho left us. "We shall avenge his death by aiding the others and complete the mission. And our first order of business, Lucky, I command you to bring me the head of the beast that caused his demise."

She's taking the official tone now. That's a sure sign that she means business. Better play my role, "I shall do as you command Lady Ankha, but I have one thing to ask if you let me." I saw a small smirk on her face which means she was expecting this. Also F.Y.I (for your information) this is the master and servant routine that we do sometimes; it's mostly for fun.

"You may speak Lucky"

"Milady, if I may boldly ask. Can you come with me? I personally understand if you don't want to come, but I believe this beast deserves punishment of the highest degree. A punishment that only someone like you can deliver"

"Hmm…interesting proposition my loyal guardian. Now that I think about it, I do feel a growing rage building up that won't be as satisfied unless I see the creature coward before me with my own eyes." She took a small pause and pretended to play with the idea, "Lucky, I have decided that I will join you, but your new task will be to aid me in defeating the beast and restraining it so I can deliver it's punishment personally. Do you understand?"

"Crystal, Lady Ankha." I said with a bow.

"Good, because it appears we have company" she then pulled out her two swords and I drew my spear as we both heard moaning coming from down the hall to my right.

"Indeed we do milady, but they shouldn't be problem." I said taking a stance facing the incoming zombie threat.

Ankha gave a small laugh as she too took a battle ready stance, "I never said they were…"

/

Ankha's P.O.V

Three zombies stood in our way, but we quickly made mince meat out of them with Lucky leading the charge. With great precision he cleaved the three cloned dead men in half in a single swing. Two more took their place, but I was poised and ready for them. Running past Lucky I caught the heads of both zombies with my swords, and with a quick pull I decapitated them effortlessly. Their bodies fell to floor with thud as they slowly turned into puddles of green blood. With no more zombies to bother us I looked to my loyal brother in name and spoke, "Lucky, what is the quickest route to the stairs since our original route was destroyed."

Lucky pointed to the hall ahead of us, "When I last saw the map it showed that we can take this hall and go right. There are many more halls we have to go through, but we should make it to the other side of the mansion despite the length."

"Sounds good to me, no doubt the others are already on the next floor."

"Then we should make haste"

Not wasting time we started running down the halls eviscerating any lesser unnatural undead that stood in our way but, we eventually ran into trouble in the shape of gorilla zombies wielding sledgehammers. Lucky and I had to take a quick step back to avoid being smashed by the hammers as they quickly made a hole in the floor of the hallway. The size of the two primates effectively blocked the path making it impossible to pass them.

*Grah, Rawr!* they bellowed as they got their hammers ready to swing.

I grew frustrated on how insistent they are on not letting us through. No doubt these two are smarter than the others considering that they set up a defense that will be hard to break through since they are ready to strike at a moment's notice. I thought about shooting my arrows at them, but I figured that they will be ready to block them.

"Lucky we need a distraction."

"I'm not sure that's going to work. Dead things like these usually have a one track mind."

"Then we need make sure that their one track mind is following something else." I searched around the hallway, but there wasn't much I can use save for some broken glass shards and a single plank of wood. "Well it's better than nothing" I said confusing Lucky.

"I take it you have a plan?"

"Yes, Lucky grab that plank"

"Okay…" he then picked up the plank and gave it a few test swings before turning back to me, "So what now?"

I smirked, "Just keep your eye on the glass shard." Using one of my swords I flicked the largest shard into the air in front of Lucky and with a quick smack he sent the shard flying straight at one of the zombies. It tried to block the shot, but when it did it shattered into multiple pieces that rained into the faces of both zombies causing them to both drop their hammers and shriek in pain.

"Now!" I yelled as we both lunged at the distracted zombies kicking both of them to the floor and finished them off via decapitation. Wasting no time we continued running down the halls unhindered as we made our way to the other side of the mansion.

…Ten minutes later…

Reaching the other side we heard gunshots from the floor above us. I looked at Lucky and he looked at me as we both nodded our heads as we continued running in order to find the stairs. Some corner turning and hallway running later we found the stairway, and immediately we stopped to take a rest at the bottom of the steps; due to all the running we have done. Hey, I may be a fast runner, but even I still have a limit on how long I can run. Anyway, once we were done regaining our breath we climbed the stairs only to be met with pure carnage. The walls before us are splattered in green blood as some axes and claws lay scattered across the floor.

"Yeesh…I think the others are taking it harder than we are." Lucky said much to my amusement. It was amusing because I envision a worse fate for the bat creature that killed Nacho.

"Indeed, but could they at least a bit be more clean about it? At least we minimized the blood splatter."

"Well, from the action movies I have seen that involved shotguns. Those type of firearms aren't known to be subtle. They're more of the hey I can't aim, but I don't really need to since this thing has a wide spread."

I giggled a bit at the small joke, "That's one way of putting it."

Sharing a few more laughs we continued to make our way through the bloody halls following the carnage our friends left behind all the while killing off any remaining zombies that got our way. Eventually, our path leads us to an outside pathway which was outside the mansion. We peered over the railing and saw the same bridge we attempted to cross over before the Hangman creature destroyed it. I could feel my anger swell as I gazed at the destroyed structure. I have already mourned for Nacho's life as it left a hole in my heart, but now what remains is a well of rage; a thirst for revenge.

"Ankha are you okay?" Lucky asked with concern bringing me back to reality.

"I'm fine, but if that Hangman creature shows up again he won't be…" I growled.

"Ah, revenge…I see just don't let it consume you okay?"

"Don't worry it won't, although, I'll feel ton's of better once he's dead."

"But what are you going to do when this is all over? Your town is left with no mayor and essentially the only man you loved in a long time who is said mayor is dead."

I sighed…I really don't want to have this conversation right now. With his death being recent in memory it still hurts to think of all the 'ifs' during our time together. Bladeius…Ohkan…and now Nacho…I felt that I already shed enough tears to last multiple lifetimes and I cried all that I cry. But…as always I learned that I have more tears to shed. As of now I'm trying to not let this recent memory affect my ability to complete the mission Nacho left for us. He wouldn't want his death to be in vain…Bladeius didn't want his death to be in vain…even Ohkan wouldn't want his death to be in vain. Gods…I miss them…

Tears threaten to fall again as age old memories resurfaced in my mind, but I have to stay strong. If I hadn't, I would have ended my life centuries ago upon hearing the news of Bladeius's death. I quickly dried my eyes before they could ruin my make-up again.

"Are you okay?" Lucky asked noticing my distress.

"I'm fine…just some old memories." I responded with a hint of sadness.

"Again? I guess you can't really let go of the past can you?"

"Lucky…I thought I did, but thanks to Nacho I slowly learning that I just repressed it."

"It's strange really"

"What is?"

"That your friend Nacho is the reason that you're having all these memories return."

"Yeah…Little N…he's always been there for me. I don't need to explain all that he has done for me. The results speak for themselves."

"Heh…yeah makes me wish I got to know more about him. Anyway…Ankha?"

"Yes Lucky?"

"Quick question, why is Nacho codenamed Ohkan?"

"Honestly, I don't know the only man who can answer that is dead."

"That may be true, but maybe Dingo and Eagle can tell us? They're friends with Nacho maybe they know?"

I laughed lightly "True…but we're going have to catch up with them first. And considering how far ahead they are from us there is no doubt they found the elevator already."

"Good point, we should keep going."

I nodded in agreement and stepped away from the railing as I joined Lucky in the search for the elevator, but before we can get far laughter was heard.

"Ha ha ha…you two aren't going anywhere."

I clenched my teeth. I already knew who is the speaker is as I took out my bow and drew one of my arrows as I quickly turn around and fired it in the direction of the voice; only for my target to dodge my attack.

"Heh heh…it would seem that you're angry about something. My guess it would have to do with the man I killed not too long ago."

My immediate response is to shoot another arrow in his direction, but this time I managed to hit him in the right shoulder. I smirked as the creature yelped in pain as he immediately flew up into the air and pulled out the arrow.

"Grah! Arrogant feline, you will pay for that!"

"No, you're going to pay monster…the price for a murdered life is the life of the murderer." I said coldly as I prepped another arrow at the creature. "And once I'm done with you I'm going after the person who created you!"

"You wish, come to me my pets!" The creature shouted as a small group of bats flew out the hallways of the mansion and gathered behind the Hanged man. "This is far as you go. I'll finish you here!" The monster gave a small cackle as both Lucky and I readied ourselves for the fight against the creature.

"Die!" The Hanged man then pointed to Lucky and I sending in four of his bats to swarm and attack us. I fired my arrow as two of the bats aligned with each other killing them both and sending their remains flying with my arrow pass the flying monster. Lucky using his spear managed to slice the remaining two individually with quick precision and speed.

"Is that all you got?" He taunted as he put his spear in a ready attack position. This, much to my enjoyment only angered the beast, for in response he sent out eight bats after us.

These bats were smarter than the last ones, for they kept a fair distance from each other forcing me to target them one at a time. I only managed to hit three while the last one managed to reach my position, but being only one bat I quickly sliced it into two with one of my swords. Lucky did the same thing with his spear when they got into his attack range and with a few plops all the bats heading towards Lucky were dead.

Seeing that his pets are failing him the creature grew even more enraged. Deciding he had enough he send the rest of his bat army at us. All thirteen bats flew at us causing me and Lucky to panic due to how many and how fast they were coming. Thinking fast I pulled out five arrows and fired them at the swarm taking out five bats as intended, but that left eight bats the ability to bite at us; and so they did.

The bat's bit and scratched at us much to my annoyance. I seriously did not want these stupid flying rodents ruining my complexion, but I couldn't take my hands away from my head or else the bats will be able to scratch my face. So I only have one option left, "Bastet's Aura!" I yelled out causing a great aura of fire to envelop myself burning away the bats that surround her and Lucky, but not hurting Lucky because this spell protects me and those close to me and cover them in an aura of fire. However, I get one bonus that they don't get; my weapons are always on fire.

"My pets! Now you gone too far!" The flying monster screamed.

I simply gave my neck a good crack as I pulled out another arrow that immediately burst into flames, "I don't care you're next" I responded. My anger is released in full and focused now thanks to the spell.

"Die!" he screeched as he swooped in trying to swipe at both of us, but unfortunately for it I dodged and Lucky caught its hand holding it in place. I released the arrow hitting him in the back burning the monster. Screeching in pain the Hanged man broke free from Lucky's grip and after flying some safe distance away pulled out the arrow only to scream in pain again as the arrow burned his hand causing him to drop it.

"Aragh! What is this?!"

Again I readied another arrow, and instead of answering his question I simply fired another arrow into his body catching it off guard. But, I didn't stop there I continually fired arrows at the beast each shot striking true to where I aimed. The sounding screams of the monster became music to my ears as he immediately flew high into the air until he was eventually out of sight. I frowned at this as it further proved that the beast is nothing but a coward who took pleasure picking on the vulnerable. I turned to Lucky who seem to have a look of concern on his face. He was about to say something until we noticed some of my arrows falling from the sky falling down harmlessly hitting the ground we stand on with quiet tapping. We stand confused for a brief moment before I knew what this meant.

"Lucky look out!" I yelled but it was in vain as immediately the Hanged man came out of nowhere and blindsided my loyal companion; knocking him over the railing. "Lucky!" I ran over where he was knocked off and much to my relief he managed to dig his spear into the wall of the mansion keeping him in place.

"Keh heh heh!" The creature laughed as he rammed into Lucky and slashed at him trying to get him to fall.

The aura that surrounded me grew fiercer as I watched this in anger. Deciding that this ends now, I placed my bow on the floor as I took a few steps back before sprinting and jumping off the walkway swords drawn.

"Rrrrrah!" I roared as I landed onto the flying monster burying my flaming swords into his back searing and scorching him in an intense inferno.

"Ahhh! Get off!" The Hanged man panicked as the flying monster now flew wildly in the air trying to shake me off, but I don't plan on letting him go, no I plan on making him suffer. The wounds my swords have made are cauterized and with great effort I pulled out one of my blades ripping off a chuck of its artificial flesh from his body causing him to fly even more erratically. This time he started ramming me into the side of the mansion hoping that it would knock me off, but no that wouldn't work because I am determined to end this beast's life; he was doomed to die the moment he killed Nacho. I wasn't sure how long we were flying, but it didn't matter to me as I continued my process of ripping his flesh out chuck by chuck until eventually the bones of the beast become exposed. The Hanged man became frantic from all the pain and burns, and eventually his flight path became erratic and as a result he crashed into the walkway and held on tight to the edge.

Still attached to his back I heard the beast cry out in pain once again, but it wasn't done by my hand. Taking this chance to get back on the walkway I ripped my swords out of his body and sliced its wings off leaving only bloodied stumps behind. Hooking his shoulders I launched myself off of him and landed on the walkway he was holding onto only to find Lucky digging his spear into its left hand pinning him in place. I followed his example by stomping my foot into his other hand causing it further pain.

"Monster!" I yelled almost in a royal voice, "You are charged with the murder of the Masked Mayor of Mellow, Nacho. What do you plead?"

"U-Uh please let me go"

"I SAID what do you plead?" I said angrily push my foot harder onto his hand.

"Aaah! G-Guilty!"

"Better…at least you're being honest about your crime, but that still won't save you."

I couldn't tell if the monster was crying or not, but I could tell he was afraid of me and he should be. After all he done in front of my eyes and I have no mercy to give to the likes of beasts like these.

"N-No p-please! Let me g-go! Take me to custody a-anything! Just don't kill me!"

My response to his pathetic pleading was to dig my foot deeper into its hand, deeper than I did the first time, and I hovered one of my swords around his wrist making sure it lay around the hooked edge.

"Gwahhh!" the creature cried, but at this point I had enough wet works. I just want to see him dead.

"The punishment for the murder of an important figure is death!" With a quick pull of the sword I separated his hand from his arm and as a result the monster was only hanging on with his remaining hand leaving him at the mercy of Lucky.

"No please!" he yelled, but because he annoyed me with its pathetic begging I slammed my foot into its masked face and began to push. I could hear him screaming in pain as the flesh remaining on its other hand began to tear as I pushed him further with my foot.

"No last words needed, you will die the way your victim died." I said coldly as I kicked him hard in the face finally tearing the hand in two and sent him plummeting to the ground below. The only thing I heard from him was a long wailing before I heard a loud smack as the creature finally hit the hard ground.

With justice finally done my aura faded away as I hung sword back in place and Lucky handed me my bow, so I can hang it on my back. Turning away from the spot where the Hanged man fell we were met with another hallway that lead to double metal door that has one button outside its frame; it was the elevator we finally found it. Before we took off to the door I looked over my shoulder at the spot where the Hanged man held on for dear life.

"That was for Nacho"

/

? P.O.V

"Ugh…this is a pain" I complained as I made my way through another set of halls. The amount of zombies that came after me was surprisingly low, but looking at my current predicament I consider that a blessing in disguise. Getting pass the doors, I found myself heading upstairs again, but on a different route. I only sighed at my current problem, but there is simply no way out of it. Taking pained steps I recalled hearing a loud smack as I made my way through the halls. I didn't really worry about it, for I heard the inhuman screaming that came before it, so I knew what it was.

"Thank God, you were watching me or else I would have made it this far." I said to no one in particular as I continued to hold on the railing for support. Finally reaching the top I laid against the wall as I took a small break in order to rest my body.

"Grr…these wounds aren't getting better, but I have to catch up. I just have four more floors to go…" With a sigh I continued my painful journey hoping that I may catch up with the people ahead.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Truth

Author's notes:

Finally, another chapter for this story and it's a long one. Here you'll have another flash back to the past and if you played the arcade or watched the game play then you should know which boss is coming up in this chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and even more hopefully that you'll tell me what you think so far dear readers, but of course that part is optional. I already wasted enough of your time as it is, so read on and enjoy.

/

Normal P.O.V (Don't expect to see this very often)

The quiet humming of the elevator gave Ankha and Lucky a sense of ease and calm ever since the feline vented her full wrath on the creature that killed Nacho. But, now as she waited she began to wonder what direction her life will take now, "Lucky?..."

Hearing his name the mummified guardian turned to his sworn sister and responded, "Yes Ankha?"

The Egyptian feline gave a deep breath, "…When this is all over. Can you stay in town around awhile longer? I need someone who can understand…" she asked which surprised Lucky considering it wasn't a command.

"Ankha…if need be I will move to your town and stay as a resident just to help you through these tough times."

"Thanks Lucky, it really means a lot to me."

"No problem sis…"

Silence returned to the elevator as the duo got themselves ready for the fights ahead.

Ten minutes passed as the elevator finally came to a stop. With a ding, the doors opened and along with this the duo got their weapons ready as moaning was heard from beyond the doors.

Lucky's P.O.V

Ankha and I stepped off the elevator only to be met with three zombies. I would have described what they looked like, but shortly after we seen them we quickly dispatched them reducing them to green puddles. Passing those puddles we noticed that we're in some sort of pipe like hallway with odd sciency lights trailing across the walls. We are definitely heading in the right direction since I can't really understand all of this techy stuff. We walked down the hall way passing dried puddles of green blood along the way.

"Just follow the trail of carnage" I heard Ankha said as she started to follow the trail. I followed her lead as these dried puddles must have been left behind by our allies who are currently ahead of us.

As we followed the trail we found ourselves again assaulted by more zombies, this time more monkey zombies, but something was different about them. Instead of the ones in suits that attacked us before, these ones have these robot parts attached to their bodies.

"By the gods, what are those things?" I asked as I readied my spear.

"Nothing good" Ankha responded as she got her swords ready as one of the cyborg zombies lunged at my sister trying to slash her with its metal claw, but she quickly sidestepped the attack and sliced the monster in half splitting it into separate pieces of meat and metal.

*Screech!*

Hearing the hiss, I instinctively thrust my spear in the direction of the noise immediately impaling the zombie. I turned to face the creature, but before I could see the creature I had to pull my head back as a flying claw just whizzed pass my face barely catching the bandages covering my face. With the danger gone I looked at the zombie as it finally died causing its organic part to melt while the cyborganic part just fell off and hit the floor with a clang, "Clone cyborg zombies?! Just what's going on down here?" I asked to no one in particular. Honestly, the mere idea of it is already ridiculous in its own right, but the thought that some madman or woman created these beasts.

"From what I seen so far, nothing good and I feel it's just going to get worse." Ankha said as she entered the door the two zombies were blocking. As she opened the door I noticed that there used to be a window to the right of us, but it appears to be broken as shards are scattered across the ground.

Entering into the room we found a decently size room filled with sciencey equipment and what I think some sort of computer system in the middle of it all. Too bad most of it seemed worse for wear and it didn't help that there was dried green blood on some of the walls, "Our friends definitely went through here" I comment as I examined the carnage, the trail of green blood seem to lead to another door in the area we used to be, but the door was closed. "And it would seem that managed to get pass that door over there." I exited the room and checked the door, but after some fruitless attempts to open it I realize quickly that it needed something to open it. I put my brain to work trying to figure out how to open and upon closer observation I found that there is a panel that requires a card of some sorts.

*Password accepted*

My ears perked at the sudden noise, it would seem that Ankha was doing an investigation of her own. Gaining my attention I returned to the room and to my surprise I found her going through files in the system.

"Uh sis? How do you understand any of this?" I asked as I was currently trying to comprehend how Ankha knows how to work any of this stuff.

"Lucky, I may prefer old styled furniture and clothing, but it doesn't mean I'm not keeping up with the times. Besides, I want to be an astronaut one day and understanding all this tech stuff is vital among other things."

"But how did you managed to figure out the password?"

"Oh that? That was lucky guess on my end. Apparently the researcher who used to work here thought it was a good idea to make their password, QWERTY."

"QWERTY? I heard that being some sort a phrase back in the town I was living at. I guess whoever owned this do-dad heard of it as well."

"Anyway, look what I found. It's mostly personal notes about this researchers experience working here. And, by the looks of it he doesn't enjoy it just read this log." Looking to the screen I silently read the log.

 _Personal log #6_

 _I don't know what's going on anymore. Some of my fellow researchers started to leave me and when I asked them why they told me that if I see what they were doing I would quit too. I didn't understand this at first, but now they really got my curiosity and I needed to see what they were talking about. However, despite my status and my contribution to this research I couldn't get to the deeper parts of the lab no matter what I said. This is deeply frustrating; a pig of my stature shouldn't be kept in the dark. I need to know what my research is being used for and nothing will stand in my way._

"So we can safely assume that he found the clones didn't he?" I asked plainly.

"That's what the next log says, but thanks to these logs I think we have culprit for all of this."

"And that will be?"

"Somebody by the name of Dr. Cadaver."

"Dr. Cadaver? Huh, weird name."

"Indeed…"

"So who is the researcher that left these logs behind?"

"Hold let me check the profile and…here it is, his name is Dr. Cornelius Cobb."

"I wonder if he managed to leave before everything went wrong."

"We can only hope."

I looked back to the locked door which immediately reminded me what needed to be done, "Ankha, did you happen to find a card of some kind because we need one to open the door over there."

"Actually yes and there isn't really much else I can dig out of this computer, so let's keep moving."

Card key in hand we exited the room and walked to the door. Ankha swiped card down the panel causing a high pitch voice to proclaim 'unlocked' as the door opened in front of us revealing more of the carnage trail left behind by our friends. More green splashes of zombie blood lined the walls which seemed to glow blue and red. Honestly, it kind of disorienting. Passing through the hall we found several open cages also covered in green blood.

"I guess there were zombies in there." I commented off handily. As the lack of zombies besides the two from earlier seem to be more prevalent.

*Moan* as to prove me wrong three bear zombies entered the room we're in wielding ball and chains.

"I stand corrected"

The zombies started swinging the iron ball to gain momentum. Back in the day I had seen similar weapons, so I already knew what to do. I waited for the zombie to throw the ball and once he did I quickly dodged it and cut the chain causing the ball to fly unrestrained and hit the metal wall behind me. I had to stifle a laugh when the zombie looked at his weapon and charged at me, but before I could deal with him another chained ball was thrown at me nearly hitting me square in the chest. After dodging the attack the zombie who threw that iron ball was immediately shot in the head with an arrow killing it courtesy of Ankha.

"You're welcome" she said as she got to work on the next zombie.

I was going to voice my thanks, but then I remembered the zombie charging at me whom I quickly dispatched by cutting his legs before stabbing it in the head. As soon as I removed my spear from the melting corpse I heard the sounds of falling slabs of flesh hit the ground, another, vicious evisceration from my sister.

"Let's keep moving" she said as we moved on to the next room.

Thankfully the next two rooms were empty making our progress much easier however Ankha had a small freak out in the third room as big and skinny neon green spiders crawled out of the vents. This however was a good thing as Ankha quickly shredded the mutated arachnids into small pieces. Onward we found another empty room with splotches of blood on the floor in this room we found two elevators one red and one blue. Seeing that there was some green blood leading to the blue elevator we decided to call that one up. Imagine our surprise when two dog zombies showed up in our elevator requiring us to kill them.

"Those guys are definitely not getting a tip"

"Yes, that was terrible service"

Stepping into the elevator a computer voice said 'down' activating it as it took us in said direction, "How deep is this place?" I asked as the elevator took us deeper into the depths.

"I don't know those blueprints never really show the layout of the lab."

"So sis, how are you holding up?" I said trying to keep a conversation going while trying to figure out her current condition.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is I never seen you that enraged before back with the Hangedman. You were literally tearing him apart and when we had him in at our mercy you showed no remorse in killing him."

I heard her sigh as her eyes looked away for a moment before looking back to me, "Lucky you're smart you should already figured out the main reason why my anger peaked."

"Nacho…"

"Yes… I guess you can say I was going through one of the stages of grief in addition to that there is another reason."

"Which is?"

"You…"

"Sis?"

"Lucky…throughout my journey as a chosen immortal of the gods, I lost Bladeius and my father in the battle against Rome, I lost my mother and my siblings to the passing of time, and then I lost Bladeius reincarnation Ohkan. Basically, what I'm saying Lucky is that you are the only family I have left. You stayed by my side through it all and even now I'm glad that you still do. So when that creature was attacking you when you were hanging for your life. I was scared of losing the only person left in the world that I cared about, so I used all that built up rage and unleashed on the monster that caused that suffering. Although, in the end I feel empty…" she trailed off as she took sudden interest in the floor.

I nearly cried upon hearing Ankha's explanation. Second to Bladeius, Ohkan, and third to Nacho I'm the only remaining person in the world that she can pour her heart to and most importantly the only person who can understand her problems. There wasn't anything else that needed to be said as I walked up to her and embraced her in a hug. She returned my gesture with a hug of her own. Ankha doesn't know it, but I promised her father I will lay down my life for her. However, it would seem I will need to break that promise, for her sake.

" _I died once I don't plan on dying again"_

Ankha's P.O.V

I fought back the tears that threaten to fall. I don't want to cry again I shed enough tears as it is already there is no need to make more. Some time passed before we finally broke the hug I looked at Lucky and gave him a warm smile; I'm glad to call him my brother. Lucky returned the smile though it was hard to tell considering the bandages covering his face.

"What the…" Lucky said in a trailing voice as he looked out a window that we passed in the elevator.

My mood soured a bit, but I suppose it wouldn't last long in this environment, "What did you see?" I asked as I looked out another passing window only to be met with a large complicated looking factory, "Oh my Isis."

Our ride came to a stop and once the doors opened we managed to see the complex in its full splendor with many complicated machinery moving like clockwork.

"Great…how are we going to find them now?" Lucky asked.

I looked around for a blood trail, but by this point it would seem the trail became sparse as blood splotches are scattered in different parts of the area. Before we could figure out where to go we heard more moan as various dog, rabbit, and cat zombies swung by via hook in the ceiling and landed in front of us. Wasting no time I drew my swords and cut three of them down while Lucky dealt with the remaining two. During the fight my ears perked up as I quickly sidestep out of the way of a thrown barrel. I looked up and saw a gorilla zombie high on a walkway attempting to throw another barrel; like I'm going to give him the chance. I dropped my blades and quickly took out my bow, drew an arrow and let it go. Aiming for the head my arrow flew fast and true piercing the brain of the monster, but then a thought crossed my brain.

" _Shoot, how am I going to get my arrow back?"_

"I got it." As if he was reading my mind Lucky Using his spear pole vaulted himself to the walkway to retrieve my arrow. Grabbing it from the floor I already realized that the pole vault was a one way trip for my companion. "Uh…how am I going to get down?" Lucky bashfully said as he looked around for a way down.

I looked around as well, but nothing. However, as if to answer our problem a chain came rolling down a track from the ceiling, "Lucky grab the chain!" I yelled as Lucky spotted the incoming chain. With a great leap he managed to grab hold of the chain which slowly descended him to the ground. Fortunately, he landed a few inches away from me and once both feet are on the ground he returned my arrow to me.

"Thank you"

"Anytime"

Moving on…we continued on our way and found the path lead to another elevator. Seeing that there are green blood stains leading to it I can safely say our remaining friends headed this way. We stepped into the elevator and for the third time took a ride in the contraption as we were taken up instead of down taking us into another room that was oddly divided by fences resulting in one path. However, I wish that was all that was wrong with the room, for it is a warzone with blood, shredded metal, and shotgun shells. I shuddered a bit from looking at the scene, for it reminded me of the fateful day I lost Bladeius.

 _/_

" _I remember the day…we never stood a chance."_

 _The rocking of the boat, sounds of countless warriors shouting, numerous ships ahead of us. I was pampered kitten until I was given a taste of harsh reality. Egypt isn't as it was anymore and now we are aiding a man to fight another man whom has one of the most powerful armies in his control. I wasn't sure why Cleopatra wanted us to help him, but it would seem we had no choice to begin with._

 _From what I remembered she and our supposed ally were behind us in separate boats. I never knew why until it was too late._

" _Ankha, are you alright?" I looked up in response to the voice it was my father whom was a priest. I inherited his fur color, but that where the similarities end he was a confident man and was well built. He sported long straight hair that reached to his shoulders and it was straight dark blue. To the untrained eye most would have mistaken him for a woman if it wasn't for the beard he grew out._

" _I-I'm fine it just that this is my first time getting into a battle such as this. Do you think we can win?"_

" _As long as the gods watch over us my dear."_

" _Whose gods? Mine or yours?" asked a gruff voice in a jokingly manner; his voice. Bladeius, a Greek soldier, who often visit the palace just to talk to me, he started out rough around the edges on our first encounter, but I wasn't much better. However, the more he came around the more we came to understand each other eventually we fell in love with each other. I was still young during that time being only in my late teenage years and him being in his mid twenties, so understandably I grew worried when my father and mother found out about our relationship. I swear to this day one of my siblings had something to do with it. Of course at first they were against it, but they eventually understood, however, not without telling Bladeius to protect me at all cost considering my status._

" _Both of our gods if we're lucky" My father responded dryly._

" _Yeah whatever" Bladeius was not wearing his usual Greek armor, but instead is wearing a Roman soldier outfit in order to blend in with the rest of Cleopatra's ally army. "Sir, I know you are a capable fighter, but why did you bring your oldest daughter to this battle?"_

" _I don't like it either, but Bastet, says she needs to experience a battle of war in order to prepare her for possible future conflicts"_

" _One of your goddesses huh? I still don't think that's a good idea, besides…I got nothing but bad feelings about this battle. I seen some of Mark Antony's ships and they are undermanned and word is that there is some sort of outbreak infecting the men he has left. I'm not sure what's he thinking, but with his army in this condition he might be desperate to get a foothold against Octavian."_

" _Ah, that would explain why you're riding in our ship."_

" _That and to watch over Ankha, she really means a lot to me. Let Hades take me if I let any harm befall her"_

 _I felt my heart flutter when he said that. I'm glad he's here because this will be my first taste of combat besides the training I was given in the months before hand. I looked at my two swords and smiled knowing that they will serve me well, "Thank you Bladeius, having you and my father around gives me confidence."_

" _Hey, what about me?" came another voice belonging to Lucky._

 _Bladeius gave a small laugh at my guardian's expense as I blushed in embarrassment that I forgot about my loyal friend, "Sorry Lucky I meant to include you too"_

" _It's alright just remember next time."_

 _When Lucky said that I saw that Bladeius smile faded as he looked to his feet and mumbled something to himself. This worried me, so I walked over to him and sat beside him. He took notice of my actions, but said nothing. Minutes later, one of our soldiers came over to my father and asked him to come with them. Seeing that he was needed he gave me a quick hug and left leaving only Bladeius, Lucky, and myself. We sat in silence as the waves crashed against our boat gently rocking it. I leaned my head on my lover's shoulder to ease my nervousness, but after spending some time in this position I could feel that he was nervous too. This didn't ease my worries, so I had to ask._

" _Bladeius is something wrong?"_

 _He sighed, this wasn't the reaction I was hoping for, "Ankha…I have seen combat many times and I have to tell you it isn't pretty. I lost a couple of good friends in terrible clashes and seen the life drain out of them as they lay dying." I gave out a small gasp as I continued to listen to Bladeius explanation, "Eventually, there came a day that I had no friends left and my life started to lose meaning. That is until I was sent to Egypt and met you. You are single greatest thing in my life that the gods allowed me experience and without you my life wouldn't have meaning anymore."_

" _Bladeius…" I was starting to become emotional. The man I loved had been through a lot in his life and no longer had anyone to help him through his pain. Now that we had fallen in love with each other he is determined to protect the only thing keeping him happy; me._

" _Ankha…what I'm saying is war is terrible and it pains me to see that you will be participating in a fight of this magnitude."_

" _Too be honest I'm scared Bladeius, but I have no choice the goddess Bastet needed me to experience this for myself no matter how terrible it is."_

" _Trust me you're not going to like it and I'll hate to see you lose some of that innocence."_

" _Actually…this wouldn't be the first time I was a witness to something gruesome."_

" _What?!"_

" _This was way before we met I andt went like this…" I explained how I was almost kidnapped when I was a kid and Lucky saved me at the cost of his life. Bladeius was quick to give a double take as he looked to me and then Lucky._

" _By the gods, but he's still alive right now!" He knew I have no reason to lie to him, despite the disbelief written on his face._

" _My father managed to bring him back as an undead guardian, my guardian for his bravery."_

" _Your father is capable of magic? That's amazing! Are you capable of such sorcery?"_

" _As of now, no. I'm still trying to learn the basics along with my combat training, so there wasn't really much time."_

" _I see, Lucky you have my respects for your early death."_

" _It's nothing really, although coming back as a mummy wasn't really something was expecting."_

 _Bladeius return his gaze to me, but it again became serious, "Ankha it's good for you to train and hone your skills, but take this from a soldier. Please find something you enjoy doing because the life of a soldier is short and unfulfilling especially if there isn't any reason to fight in the first place."_

" _Sure…but I don't know what I'm good at. I been nothing but a pampered kitten for most of my life Bladeius what can someone like me can be good at?"_

" _Ankha…that's not for me to decide. Only you can figure that out."_

" _I guess…but you'll help me right?"_

 _In response he gave me an amused smirk, "Sure as long as you hold a promise."_

 _I gave him a confused look, "Which is?"_

 _Giving me another smirk I was surprised when he leaned in and kissed me on the lips. My eyes widen from the suddenness of it all, but I soon found myself kissing back with equal passion. I wasn't sure how long we were kissing each other, but as soon as we broke our kiss he whispered to my ear._

" _Keep on living…"_

 _I sat there flabbergasted at his request, but before I could respond I heard my father shouting._

" _Cleopatra is signaling us to retreat!"_

" _What?!"_

" _Why?"_

" _Does it matter? Just do it!"_

 _The boat started to turn the other direction retreating instead of aiding the friendly roman ships all of the Egyptian ships are turning around, but why?_

" _Ankha!" yelled my father as he ran where we are._

" _Father what's going on?"_

" _I would also like to know why your Pharaoh decided to turn tail and run with the rest of her ships." Bladeius asked almost angrily as he found the thought of desertion dishonorable. However, I believe deep inside he's partially glad I won't be seeing any real combat._

" _I don't know we are prepared for the worst, but this is unexpected."_

" _Whatever…" Bladeius then stormed off not wanting to hear anymore of this._

" _T-This is unheard of…" My father then sat down sighing in great frustration._

" _Father, what's going to happen now?"_

" _Ankha my child I guess we're just going to go home, but I can't shake this feeling of dread. There is just something wrong about this, has our beloved kingdom fallen this far?"_

 _After answering my question my father continued his ramblings giving me no choice, but to seek out Bladeius wanting to hear his input. He wasn't very far as he was leaning on the back end of the boat watching the ships we we're leaving behind. I was concerned for him as a soldier it can't be easy for him just to leave a battle before it started._

" _Bladeius?" I asked meekly._

" _Love…come over here there is something you need to see." He said somberly as I walked over next to him. "Look…" Pointing to the ships that we are leaving behind I gasped in shock and utter horror. The ships closest to the opposing army were quickly boarded it inhabitants slaughtered and razed while the ones that weren't set a flame quickly surrendered._

" _By the gods…"_

" _This is war Ankha, and it's a terrible beast. Your Pharaoh and her ally are quickly retreating from this fight leaving those unable to escape at the mercy of the enemy."_

" _I had no idea…"_

" _It's one thing to fight for reason and another without, but none of it matters if you can't back it all up." He gave out another frustrated sigh, "I don't know what's going on in Rome, but this sorry excuse of a battle is a sign of bad things to come."_

" _I see…, but why would Bastet would want me to witness such horrors?"_

" _I don't know…the gods are enigmatic with their reasoning, but one thing I know for sure it's mostly for their benefit at least from my experience anyway."_

 _The screams of roman soldiers slowly started to fade as we continued to sail with the remaining boats. Eventually the screams stopped, but it left me emotionally scarred._

" _If there is any silver lining to it all then it would be that I didn't lose anyone close this day."_

 _I leaned against him we needed each other more than ever now just to cope with how terrible this entire event went. I could feel him physically relax as my body rest against his just simply taking comfort in my presence._

 _*THUNK*_

 _Suddenly, the boat we are riding in rocked a bit after taking an impact to the right side. Bladeius' body immediately grew tense upon this and immediately drew his two swords._

" _What was that?" He asked cautiously as he started to walk away from the rear of the boat._

" _Something hit the boat" I said growing a bit scared._

" _Exactly, but what?"_

 _As if fate had cruel timing several roman soldiers climbed over the side of the boat with swords and shields drawn attempting to lock them into corner._

" _There they are! Kill the Greek and take the feline!" One of the soldiers's shouted which caught me by surprise. How did they know Bladeius is Greek? He's wearing a roman soldier's armor they shouldn't be able to tell so easily!_

" _Ankha stay behind me!" Bladeius shouted as he got ready to fend them off._

" _Attack!" One of them shouted as they all charged at us with shields raised. Bladeius did his best to fight them off managing to kill three of them before being knocked down by a shield. The remaining soldiers raised their swords ready to deliver the fatal blow._

 _My mind was racing with panic, for I could not believe this was happening right now. But I had to do something, and then I remembered the two swords I was given for the battle we retreated from. The thought of me killing someone is a repulsive idea, but the man I love is about to be killed and that was a good enough reason for me to pounce on these unfortunate souls._

" _Leave him alone!" I shouted as I jumped into the fray. Remembering what my father taught me I used my swords to rip their shields away from them and in a literal sense disarmed them. Their arms fell to the ground as they screamed in pain and panic. Bladeius during this time managed to get up from the ground and silenced the screaming troops._

" _That may have not been easy for you, but good work." He said knowing that this was the first time I had blood on my hands. However, we couldn't rest as we heard shouting coming from the other side of the ship and more bumps assaulted our ship, "Shit there's more?!" he growled as he looked to me, "We need to regroup with the others!"_

 _I nodded as we both took off to regroup with my father and Lucky and hopefully we can come up with a plan. However, the fact those soldiers knew Bladeius is Greek is troubling not even Cleopatra's ally knew that he is Greek._

" _Bladeius?"_

" _I know this isn't a normal attack. Octavian will gain no benefit from attacking one ship and taking you prisoner, so this is not his work."_

" _Then who's?"_

" _My best guess somebody from Egypt with a personal motive."_

 _Making our way to my father and Lucky, however, when we got there we found a miniature warzone as bodies of fallen soldiers lay strewn across the ship with my father and my mummified guardian covered in scratches and blood in the middle of it all._

" _Father, Lucky!" I shouted catching their attention. They ran towards us while stumbling a bit on the bodies with looks of relief on their faces._

" _My child, thank the gods that you're alright!"_

" _Bladeius protected me."_

" _And she protected me. I'll admit the training you gave her really paid off." I blushed at the comment, but later pushed it aside considering our current situation._

 _Speaking of the situation, "Father, Lucky what's our current status on the ship?"_

" _Lady Ankha, we are fighting a losing battle. The number of troops that attacked our ship is astounding, but why would they attack us?"_

 _I was going to answer, but Bladeius stepped forward before I could say anything. "They're after Ankha…"_

 _My father's eyes widen, "What?! But there is no reason for them to take my daughter prisoner."_

" _If that wasn't bad enough all of them wish to see me dead. Again we have no idea why."_

 _The clanging of swords and shields still rang strong as five more roman soldiers showed up weapons drawn._

" _We don't have time for this!"Bladeius shouted as he parried a sword strike and cut the throat of the soldier causing him to fall over dead. Aiding him I quickly used my swords to grab the leg of nearest soldier and tripped him over as I followed up by impaling him with both of my swords. My father and Lucky managed to dispatch the remaining three using their great skill with their weapons leaving them nothing but bloody remains._

" _I'm not sure how many they're bringing, but we need a plan and now!" Bladeius shouted._

 _*Clink, Crash*_

 _The sounds of breaking jars filled our ears as suddenly portions of the ship are starting to become engulfed in flames._

" _Bastards, they're getting desperate!"_

 _The situation is growing worse we need a plan off this ship and soon. During this I looked to my father who seemed to be thinking up a plan, "Bladeius, these soldiers must have smaller boats in order to reach our ship undetected. We need to gather whatever surviving soldiers we can and make sure Ankha is on that same boat out of danger."_

" _You're right! Considering that this attack was recent they should still be near the ship!"_

 _He looked over the edge and looked back at me with a smile which gave me hope that we will make it out together._

" _Every soldier who can still stand, RETREAT! The boat is lost, but we managed to obtain one of their smaller vessels in order to escape. I repeat if you can still stand get over here now!" Upon hearing my father's voice several of our soldiers headed in our direction and stopped in front of my father, "Is this all?" my father asked._

" _Yes, all the remaining troops have been slain in the attack unfortunately. Where's the boat?" My father pointed to over the edge and all the troops look over the edge and started climbing over in order to reach the boat. Once all the soldiers made it into the boat they told me I was next, so I did the same as those before me with Lucky following after me. We got settled in the boat and waited for my father and Bladeius, but only Bladeius came._

" _Whuh?! Bladeius where's my father?" He didn't even look at me as he kicked the smaller boat away from the big vessel._

" _Ankha, we needed someone to distract those soldiers long enough for us to escape and it was either me or your father, and…your father wanted you to be happy."_

" _No…no no no…" his words struck me hard. I couldn't believe it, but Bladeius would never lie about this to me. The boat fell silent as we rowed our way to nearest shore._

…

 _I wasn't sure much time has passed, but I found myself crying most of the way. I was partially mad at Bladeius, but I knew he didn't have a choice at the time. Lucky who was helping me dry my tears as he tried to comfort me. Eventually we hit land and disembarked once we did we started to walk in the direction of my home and it's going to be a long trek._

 _After walking some distance Bladeius decided to walk next to me. I guess he was afraid of me after my father sacrificed himself to give us time to escape, but he shouldn't worry anymore._

" _Ankha…look I'm sorry I couldn't bring your father along, but I…"_

" _Hold your tongue love." He gulped a bit in response, "Bladeius…I'm still saddened and angry that we couldn't bring my father along, but after some thought I realized it was out of your control and I can't blame you for that."_

" _So you don't hate me?"_

 _I giggled a bit before I gave him a quick peck on the cheek, "Far from it…"_

" _So what do we do now?"_

" _Right now, just go home."_

 _Continuing our trek taking many days and many nights it wasn't long until we eventually ran into trouble, little did I know that this encounter will be the last time I see my love face to face. During our trek we stopped by a nearby oasis which was a godsend at the time and we decided to take a rest there. Honestly, I thought we were in clear until Bladeius alerted us to an approaching squad of roman soldiers heading our way. He told me that even if we make a break for it now they will see us, so Bladeius decided to run straight at them and distract them long enough for us to escape unnoticed._

" _No, I won't allow it! I already lost my father I won't lose you!"_

" _Ankha…my light in the darkness of life if I don't do this they will continue to pursue us until we finally could no longer move."_

" _But but…"_

" _You know this has to be done. Not just for your sake, but for the families of these brave men who stood by your father."_

 _Looking into his eyes I saw sadness knowing that he may not keep his promise to my father, but strangely I saw a look of knowing as if he saw this coming, "Ankha…keep on living…for the both of us…"_

 _I gave a gasp as he leaned in gave me a deep kiss not of passion, but as a good bye. Tears started welling in my eyes as after breaking the kiss he turn his body away from me, drew his swords, and started walking towards the squad._

 _However, a part of me didn't want to let him go as I tried to follow him, but instead I was held back by Lucky as I watch the figure of Bladeius start sprinting towards the soldiers gaining their attention._

 _My tears started flowing like the Nile as I was picked up by Lucky and carried away never to see my love again._

 _When I returned home I told my mother what happened and she told me we should leave Egypt and find a new place to call home. Gathering my siblings and leaving our home with Lucky in tow we now wandered the landscape not knowing how long it would take before we found a new place to stay._

 _/_

" _Ankha…Ankha!"_

"Huh what?!"

"Are you alright? You just spaced out. I had to carry you through the entire room"

"Oh sorry, I was just remembering a long memory."

"Bladeius?"

"That and more…my that day changed my life."

Lucky, I figured didn't question which memory was it as we continue our path. The room he brought me in was nothing to write home about save for a weird chute that led to nowhere, so we kept going using the key card to open the door. The next room however was much more surprising as it was a chamber with tubes containing cloned zombies it would seem most of them are dormant, but a few of them are shattered open as if something broke out of them. However, what was in the remaining tubes shook me to my core, for they were zombified clones of Kiki, Derwin, and Chow. I shuddered at the sight their clones decaying bodies.

"My gods…"

"Let's keep moving…"

Taking the time to explore we've eventually found a way to move forward and found a small elevator that lead us to a different room. The room itself was like the jail cells we saw earlier, but there are only two paths to go, but we decided to go on the one on the right and what we saw surprised us. It was a large room with a few bridges going across it going over a large pool of water.

"Whoa…if it wasn't for the fact this belonged to a whack job scientist I would have been impressed." Lucky commented.

I felt inclined to agree, but I heard something splashing in the water. Turning in the direction of the sound three new zombies leapt out of the water and blocked our way on the bridge. But, these ones are different; for they bore no features on their smooth bodies save for two red eyes and an open mouth revealing sharp teeth.

I was taken aback by their appearance as they laughed. Their high pitch laughing could unnerve the common man, but not me. I drew my swords as the little monsters started jumping around all the while laughing manically. Lucky position himself behind me due to the fact the free floor space around here is limited. The little monster started their attack by jumping into the air and throwing blue blades. With the right positioning I deflected the incoming projectiles as I closed the distance with the nearest zombie. Right before he landed I swung my sword upward slicing the little monster into two causing the other two to retaliate in response. However, one of them immediately became impaled by Lucky's spear before being used as a club to hit the other back into the water.

"We got to keep going, there isn't much room to fight on here!" I shouted as we continued our path by running across the bridge only to run into a dead end, "Great, now where do we go?" I heard splashing as the zombie Lucky knocked into the water leapt back onto the bridge and was seeking revenge.

"I got it!" Lucky said to me as he went to take care of the monster. Leaving me plenty of time to figure out how to proceed forward. Fortunately, I didn't have to do anything, for a lift began moving downwards. Unfortunately, three zombies hitched a ride one half metal zombie dog, one bear zombie carrying a flaming chainsaw of all things, and one gorilla zombie with exposed muscle tissue. I would have been horrified if it wasn't for the fact my adrenaline was pumping.

"Now this is just getting ridiculous" Readying my swords I waited for one of the zombies to rush me and lucky me it was the one with the flaming chainsaw.

*Mooaaaw*

The monster charged at me as I waited for it to swipe at me. He came at me at an angle and swung his chainsaw horizontally which I quickly ducked under and hooked his legs with my swords tripping the monster and causing it to lose its chainsaw in the water. Following up my attack I thrusts both of my swords into the zombie bear stabbing its heart and lung.

*Roaw*

Hearing the next zombie coming after me I pulled out my swords and quickly swung my right sword into the zombie dog cutting into its neck which only stopped halfway due to the metal parts making up half of its body.

*Muah…*

The zombie was slowly bleeding out; slowing down its movements, but it didn't have much time to suffer as the gorilla zombie knocked its fellow zombie out of the way, _"Mindless beasts will be mindless beasts"_ I mentally said to myself as it charged at me only for the zombie to stabbed in the brain by Lucky's spear which stopped it cold. "I had it handle you know."

"Yeah, but I was getting bored"

I gave an amused smile as I hung my swords again and stepped onto the lift with Lucky stepping on it afterwards. Pressing one button we are lifted to the bridge above us and found another trail of green blood that led to another door. Following the trail we opened the door only to be met with a surprising sight. A man stood tall in a lab coat wearing sunglasses and wielding a cane in the middle of a green room.

"Ah, I was wondering when you two will show up" the man said.

"Dr. Cadaver I presume?"

"Heh, you been doing your homework I see. Good little kitty, you'll make a nice specimen right next to your mummy guardian right there."

"What!? I'm not a mummy!"

"Oh don't lie to me…Lucky"

My eyes widen when he spoke his name, "How do you know his name?!"

"How couldn't I know? Since my benefactor who funded my research told me to keep an eye out for a cat that seems to be fond of Egyptian style wear and a mummy dog. Although, he told me that you take top priority."

"W-What?..." I stood there flabbergasted and shocked that someone is told this nut case to find me, but who?

"Ah well enough wasting time. I can't keep his highness waiting, he wants an army from me and I plan on delivering with interest, so do me a favor and make this easy like your friends before you." He was then lowered into a hole from a platform he was standing on.

"Hey wait!" I yelled as I tried to run after him, but only to be blocked as a giant spider like creature fell from the hole above the room screeching in my face. "Wha!" I screamed as I fell backwards and back away a few feet.

*Hissss*

I ran up next to Lucky as I drew my bow ready to fight the giant monster, "What is that thing!?"

"It's the Hermit, looks like Dr. Cadaver doesn't limit his experiments to cloning"

"Does it have a weak point?"

"It's head! Aim for the head!"

Listening to Lucky's advice I fired an arrow at the beast, but it blocked my shot getting my arrow stuck in its leg. The giant spider then jumped into the hole and consequently we chased after it. We looked into the hole and almost immediately we had to jump back to avoid getting webbed.

"Disgusting!" The last thing I want right now is spider webbing in my hair, so note to self avoid that attack at all cost.

The beast itself was a fair distance away forcing me to be the only one able to attack it. This turn the fight into a twisted game of peek-a-boo as I switched from peeking out and backing up in order to avoid the ball of webs and counter attack with my arrows. This repeated a couple of times with my arrows mostly being blocked by the monsters armored appendages. This made me growl in frustration, but I have to keep my cool or else I'll waste all my arrows shooting the horrid thing.

*Spurt, spurt, spurt*

More web balls came my way, but like before I backed away from the hole to avoid them once more as I took a deep breath; if this doesn't work I'm going to hate myself. I stepped off the floor I was standing and fell feet first into the hole; straight at the beast.

"Ankha!" I heard Lucky shout as I stared into the eyes of the as I landed square in its head causing it to screech in pain which didn't end as I used its head as a foot stool to jump into the air in order to avoid it's reflexes. Time seem to slow down as I readied my bow and waited for my opening which came soon as it moved its arms away from its face to see what was going on, but that was a mistake. Releasing my arrow it flew and pierced the beast's head destroying one of its eyes completely causing the monster to screech louder in pain as it let go of the walls it was holding onto and landed at the bottom of the passage.

The beast backed away from me trying to remove the arrow from its head, but to no avail. It quickly gave as it faced me at the end of the passage obviously angry at what happened. Thankfully, Lucky decided to drop in after me with his spear ready to fight.

*Hisss!*

The beast hissed in defiance obviously it didn't want to disappoint its master, but unfortunately it doesn't have a choice in the matter. I drew another arrow, but the monster decided to be smart by covering its face with its two front limbs all while advancing to our position. Once it is close enough it lowered its guard in order to swipe at us, but Lucky managed to stop the strike with his spear by parrying the limb sending it in another direction knocking it off balance. Its guard gone and it attack failed I quickly fired my arrow striking it in the head again causing it to screech in pain, but I didn't let up as I grabbed three more arrows and released them all at once each one hitting its mark.

*CAWAAA!*

The creature backed up again reeling from the pain my arrows are causing to its cranium. Changing its plan of attack the creature aimed its abdomen at us, much to my disgust, and started firing web balls from its rear end. Lucky and I had to hug the walls of the passage in order to avoid the sticky shots which harmlessly passed the both of us and hit the wall that was behind us.

"I said it once and I'll say it again, disgusting!" I shouted as I got back into position only to quickly dodge an incoming strike from the monster. "That was cutting it close." Taking a few steps back I drew another arrow, but the creature went in for another attack. Thankfully, Lucky has my back as he swung his spear with great force aiming at the joint of the spider monster cutting the limb off."

*EEEKKAA!*

The creature freaked out as green blood leaked out of the amputated arm and attempted to retreat now realizing that it can't win against us, but I didn't plan on letting this freak of science live.

"Bastet's arrow" I said almost chant like manner as my arrow caught fire becoming a fire arrow. With the arrow ready I took aim and released the arrow, it flew fast and true and in the ultimate coup de grace pierced through the monsters head causing it to stop moving and suddenly the beast's body burst into flames as its body dropped to floor motionless.

I took a few deep breaths as I sat down on the floor taking the time to take a breather from all action thus far. Lucky walked and sat next to me as he too gave a deep breath, "Whew…I needed a break." He said as we sat together watching the spider burn to ash.

"We'll need as much strength as we can muster, so enjoy this while you can because once the fire dies down and I retrieve any surviving arrows we'll keep moving forward and chase after Dr. Cadaver and hopefully find our friends and the kidnapped villagers."

"Ankha, he said that his bene-bena-benefactor told him to watch out for us. Does that mean he was expecting us to come to the mansion the entire time?"

I gave a quick thought about the idea and it made sense, but it wouldn't explain the zombies coming and kidnapping villagers, "Possibly, but I also think those zombie raids on towns aren't just for him to gather more materials. I think he was using them to find us and by extension kidnap us."

"Whoa…just for us?"

"Exactly, but the better question is who is he working for? Just who is his benefactor?"

"Too many questions…"

"Not enough answers…"

We both gave deep sighs as we dug as deep as we can, but cannot figure out the full truth. There isn't simply enough information for it. The flames eventually died down and all that remained of the spider is ash. Placing my bow around my body I walked to the ash and retrieved any arrows that weren't burnt into a crisp; I only found two leaving me with fewer arrows than normal.

"Let's go Lucky, we can't let this madman have things go his way."

"Right"

Walking to the end of the passage we came to a drop, it wasn't leg breaking, so we both nodded to each other and jumped. Ready to end this nightmare.

? P.O.V

I don't know how, but I managed to reach this part of the lab without meeting too many zombies. It was mostly smooth sailing. Thankfully, most of the security has been opened up already. Damn these injuries I would have made faster progress if it weren't for them. Eventually, I made it to a room that had a chute which confused me. Why would there be a chute here and for what? Curiosity taking me, I slid down the chute and I found myself in a room with stacked chairs and a body lying in the middle of it all.

"What the…" was all I could mutter as I saw dried red blood surrounded the body. Using what strength I could muster I flipped the body over and I gasped out of shock, for I was looking at the dead body of Frog one of the agents that went missing.

"Damn…it was too late for you. Sorry Frog, you were a good man. I just hope your partner is still alive." I didn't want to be in this room anymore and so I climbed my way out of the room and continued to make my way through the rest of this place.

"Not again…I won't let it happen again."


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Showdown

Author's note

Finally, the near conclusion of this story it's been a quite a ride huh? However, this story isn't quite over yet as there is still an epilogue after this chapter. But anyway to those who played the first House of The Dead game; you should know where we are now. To those who don't, then watch a Youtube video or look it up on the internet. Any who, just so you know I had my birthday yesterday and boy it was a blast! But that's enough about me I would like to hear from you guys what do you think of this chapter. Since we're near the end and all it would seem appropriate, but of course it's optional, so no rush. So please enjoy this chapter and have fun.

/

Ankha's P.O.V

Landing with a hard clank Lucky and I took a brief moment to recover from the hard landing. I may be great acrobat, but those kinds of landings are still hard on my knees. "Ah…okay that hurt a bit…"

"Yeah…that was a hard landing. Let's try not to do that again…"

"Agreed…"

Getting off from the floor we dusted ourselves off and made our way through a cavernous passage way. Of course a few cyborg zombies got in our way, but knowing how to deal with them we dispatched them with ease by splitting them in half. I had no idea how deep we are now in the complex, but right now we need to follow that man and make him spill everything he knows. That fact he sent out those zombies to find me and Lucky disturbs me, so I need to know who he worked for. Making a right we found a generator of some sorts. It was keeping the path ahead locked, so I quickly ran up to it and tapped a few buttons into the machine causing it to power down.

"Uh…" Lucky was again dumbfounded how I knew how to power the thing off.

"There wasn't any security on it. I just had to press power and it said 'are you sure?' Of course I tapped yes, simple enough for you?" I said somewhat annoyed by Lucky's lack of understanding for technology. I really need to introduce him to these things.

"Oh…well yes."

The sound of a moving door clicking got our attention as we returned to the passageway to see the door blocking our way has finally opened leading to a circular platform. We walked closer to see that to the right of us there is a door continuing forward. We made our way to the door, but before we made it halfway across the platform Lucky grabbed me unexpectedly and jumped back. I was going to ask what that was about until I heard a loud thud and saw the reason itself.

*Muhaaawwww!*

"What?! The Chairot? I thought we killed that thing!" Lucky said shock lining his voice. Not that I blame him, I saw the beast die with my own eyes and even melt into a puddle, so why is there one standing in our way? Unless…

"Lucky, this isn't the same one we fought back in the library! They must have made more!"

"More?!"

"Just be glad only one of them is here now!" I shouted getting my swords out taking a fighting stance.

Lucky followed my lead and pulled out his spear, "I am not looking forward to being kicked through a wall again!"

"Then don't! Just focus on breaking through its armor!"

*Muhaaww!*

"This time I won't be the one being kicked through a wall!" Lucky was first to charge the beast clashing both of their weapons which are now caught in a test of strength as both undead fighters tried to gain the upper hand on each other.

But, unfortunately for him we remember our last encounter with the beast; however, with a quick gaze I noticed that the beast's armor was a different color. Instead of grayish color of the last one this one has a greenish tint to its armor and worst of all there were no imperfections in the armor. That meant only one thing; we'll have to make one.

In the middle of the clash I slid underneath Lucky passing between his legs and brought out both of my swords and hooked the metal ankles of the monster, and again like before I managed to throw the metal monster off balance causing it to fall forward and landed hard on its face.

*grahh…* I heard the creature moan as it tried to get up from the ground only to be stabbed by Lucky's spear pinning it to the ground. *Gruah!*

The creature flailed in pain as I hopped away in order to watch the action from a safe distance. _"No doubt that this is a variant of the Chariot we fought before only this is an improved model with flaws ironed out, but…"_

"Alright, time to go for a ride!" Lucky said as he picked up the monster from his spear with great strength as green blood started dripping down the spear until Lucky decided to throw him into the air and as it fell my mummy companion kicked the monster hard sending the beast careening into the rock wall effectively making a small crater in the wall.

" _Other than that this creature acts more or less the same as the previous one…"_ I thought to myself as I saw the creature pulled itself out of the crater it's now impressive armor damaged and missing in a few places revealing the green muscle tissues that made up the beast.

*GURAAWW!* the monster roared as it rushed Lucky and attempted to tackle him to the ground, but Lucky being an experienced wielder of that spear simply aimed and thrust his spear through the now unarmored belly of the beast stopping it in its tracks. I smiled as I hung my swords on my sides and watched idly by as Lucky turned the blade of his spear upward and pulled up cutting the creature in two splitting it in half from the shoulder.

I watched as the light disappeared from the creature's eyes as it fell onto the floor as it bled out and slowly the organic parts of it melted into green goop.

"I told you…" Lucky said as he shook off a bit of the creature's blood onto the floor before returning the spear to its place on his back. "I'm not the one being sent through a wall this time."

I merely shook my head in amusement as I gave my canine guardian a small applause, "Well done Lucky, I only had to help you once in that fight."

I had to hold back a giggle as Lucky's ears perked up and fell back into place as he rubbed the back of his head bashfully, "Heh…you're too kind. I promise that I will continue to become better."

"That's what I like to hear." Was all I said as I faced the unopened door behind me, "Let's keep moving, who knows what Cadaver is planning right now."

"Right!" he said as we opened the door which leads into a large open cavern. It was so vast and empty looking you could swear it went on forever. Apparently, the rest of path is connected straight to the wall of the cave, but how far up this walkway is can be anyone's guess. The path itself was long as the next door was up ahead, but looks a like a mile and a half walk; good thing we plan on running.

"Why hello there…my pretties"

My ears perked up as I heard the new familiar voice and with it the anger I felt over Nacho's death. Quickly drawing my bow I grabbed an arrow and fired it in the direction of the voice which in response I heard a 'hey!' in response which made me smile.

"The hell?! Is that how you treat everybody you meet?" The voice complained as I turned to face a reddish variant of a creature I didn't want to see again.

"No…I simply don't like you." I said coldly as I imbued my next arrow in fire.

The red Hanged Man shuddered in response to my killer aura. No doubt like the Chariot this one is supposed to be an improvement over the other one we faced. Though it is true this one didn't kill my beloved Nacho it was the other one, but the personality is pretty much the same, so he'll receive no mercy from me.

"Alright, feline time to die then. Get them!" Like the other Hanged Man he sent bats after us, but like before I activated Bastet's aura which without harming Lucky incinerated the bats effortlessly.

"The hell?! Just what are you?!"

"I'm just a feline out of time, but you…you're my scratching post" I said simply as I released the arrow.

Normal P.O.V

As the two heroes start their fight against the improved Hanged Man. Dr. Cadaver was finishing the final touches on his best creation yet. The madman smiled proudly to himself as he tapped away on his computer. To him this is going to be a big payday, for he has countless zombies and creatures of science at his disposal, furthermore, his benefactor is going to be one happy man with what he dug up.

*Ring, Ring* a smile grew on his face as he opened up his phone to answer the call.

"Why hello, what do you need?"

…

"Oh a progress report on your army? Well you'll be happy to know that I have enough 'donors' to create large quantities of disposable soldiers along with some powerful commanders to lead them."

…

"Why thank you you're highness today has been going well. I just placed the final touches on my final commander and he's the strongest one of them all."

…

"Yup everything is smooth sailing from here on out. I mean sure we have intruders over here, but now there's only two and trust me you're going to want to hear this."

…

"Do you remember asking me to look out for a mummy dog and or a cat that should belong in ancient Egypt? Well guess what I found?"

…

"I already order my commanders to capture them. But, before that happens I just want to know. When I capture them and present them to you what do I get in return?"

…

"How much now? And a place on the…you got yourself a deal! I make sure to gift wrap them for you when you get here!"

*Click*

The scientist maddening smile grew larger as now his life just became better for him, "Yes! Finally, my dream of making a new world will be possible. All those fools who doubted me! Humanity and all those mortals will bow before me and the man who helped made this all possible! Bow to your new god!"

Ankha's P.O.V

"Raahh!" I yelled as a feeling of déjà vu ran through my brain as I found myself tearing into the lightweight armor and ripping it asunder with my blades exposing the Hanged Man's fragile flesh to the open air. It was just like when I dived off the walkway outside the mansion to kill the first variant of this monster. Mirroring that situation I leapt off the walkway in this cave and attacked the creature when it flew too close. Now I found myself hanging on for dear life as this monster tried it best to throw me off of it, but these blades and my claws aren't made to let go. As again and again rip into the remaining metal plates with the same power I used to tear the first's flesh asunder, but with more control this time.

"Get off! Get off!" he yelled as he did a flip maneuver in an attempt to shake me off, but to no avail.

My response to his pleas was to plunge the sword in my left hand into his abdomen and with a bit of tugging I cut his belly open exposing his vital innards.

"Gah!" The beast screamed in bloody agony as it covered the exposed section of his body.

"Between you and me…I was actually being merciful this time." I said coldly as the winged monster could only look at me with utter fear.

"Wh-What?! You're calling this merciful?"

"Yes…because you didn't commit a fatal crime."

"But you're still going to kill me?! Why?!"

"Because you remind me of the horrid beast who killed my potential lover…"

"Eep…"

I decided I had enough of this pathetic creature as I raised my right sword and brought it down on the beast's shoulder.

"Wah!" he cried in pain as he started losing his ability to fly, but Of course I didn't plan on falling down with him. Having my blade locked into his bones I used my other blade to cut off his left wing causing him to lose his current direction and head towards the walkway.

"Lucky! Get your spear ready I yelled out as I removed my blade from the beast's body and position myself to get ready for a rather extravagant finish. Though it seem unnecessary and dangerous if I don't time this right, but I feel like should do something special for this situation.

Lucky raised his spear and pointed it in the direction of the falling Hanged Man, "I'm ready!" he yelled out.

"Okay…wait for it…wait for it…now!" as the beast fell to close proximity of the walkway I removed my blades and in one swift motion I kicked with all my might the beast's back sending the flying chest first into Lucky's spear impaling him on his blade. With a flip I used the hook my blades to grab onto the railing of the walkway to avoid failing to my death.

*Gaaaah! Agh!* the beast screamed in pain as it tried to pull itself out of Lucky's spear, but to no avail. Pulling myself onto the walkway I managed to see the creature melting into a green puddle that dripped off of Lucky's spear as the clanging of falling metal fell and hit the floor. Lucky shook off the remaining green goop off his blade before returning his spear to a neutral position as I ran up to him. He gave me a concern look, no doubt from that needlessly flashy stunt I just pulled off.

"Never do that again. You had me worried for a moment there." He said with relief lining his voice.

"Sorry, but it's not every day you get to kill that monster twice in one day. I just thought I'll give him the honor of dying in style considering that he doesn't deserve a painful execution like the other one."

"Right…anyway, the door is up ahead. My best guess the final line of defense is waiting for us beyond that door."

"That undead obsessed freak can send all we want at us we're leaving this mansion with our friends and him dead."

"Right" he said with a affirmative nod as we walked to the door and opened it ready for the fight up ahead.

? P.O.V

*Thump!*

"Agh!" I screamed out in pain as I landed onto the floor hard causing me to collapse as my legs gave way. "Damn it all!" I yelled to no one in particular as I lied on the floor in pain. Honestly, whoever made this place never bothered to install a ladder for that tunnel. I slowly picked myself up off the floor as I tried to gain my footing. "Err…this doesn't help my legs at all….great I'm going to be limping again." Sucking up the pain I continued to trudge on as I slowly made my way through the cave like passageway I found myself in.

It took some time, but I eventually made my way into a small circular room that seen the sight of a big battle, for I saw the huge crater that marked the wall with whoever was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of whatever did that. The green blood on the floor tells me that it was a kind of zombie with metal attached to its body considering the scrap that lay beside it which looked like it was torn off by a wild animal. "They have definitely been here." I said as I noticed the opened door. Walking through it I loudly groaned my annoyance at the long walkway that lay before me. "Seriously? Whoever made this place must like to stay active. Unfortunately, in my current state I'm not fit to run across this to make my trip shorter!" letting out a frustrated sigh my thoughts drifted towards a certain feline. Considering what has happened I have no doubts that she would think I'm dead. Heck, I shouldn't be alive after that fall, but yet here I am trying to catch up to her and her friend.

"Now, I've fallen for her both emotionally and literally…" I muttered as I made my way towards the door up ahead.

Ankha's P.O.V

Blood lay splattered across the hallway as more zombies spawned from pillars of electricity. It was truly a skirmish as I cut the head off a nearby zombie and hooked another. "They just keep coming!" I yelled to Lucky as I saw him grab a zombie by the head and throw it across the hall in front of him.

"We need to keep moving forward! Stay behind me!" he yelled as position his spear pointing down the hall in front of him. I threw the zombie attached to my sword and did what he said as I realized what he is about to do; he's going to run down the hall in order to clear a path. With a war cry Lucky ran down the hall impaling every zombie that got in his way as I quickly ran behind him. In no time we reached the end of the hall, but were met with a problem; there was a fork in the road and we had no idea which way to go. Once we made our way to the end of the hall we decided to run the left direction and continue running until we ran into the door. Opening it quickly we passed through and closed it behind us only to be met with a large room.

"Where are we?" I asked confusedly as I looked around the large room until my eyes locked onto a large circular machine that has a lone figure inside of it. "What is that?"

"I don't know…" Lucky said as he was just as dumbfounded as I was.

"It's brilliant isn't it?" shouted a familiar despicable voice.

"Dr. Cadaver!" I yelled as both Lucky and I ran to source of the voice finding the mad doctor himself standing in front of a console.

"Ah, I admire your tenacity. You two truly have proved that time means nothing with the power you two have."

"Cut the chatter!" I yelled, "There is nowhere for you to run, and I want answers and I want them right now!" Lucky and I had our weapons pointed at him just in case this freak tried anything funny.

"Ha! In time you'll get them, but in the mean time say hello to my master piece!" The mad doctor quickly pressed one glowing button on the console and suddenly we heard the sounds of machinery moving behind us. Lucky and I turn to see what was happening only to stand in shock and horror as the circular machine opened up to reveal the lone occupant.

"Who…where…am I?" the being asked in robot like voice.

"You are my latest creation, The Magician!"

"The Magician…what is my purpose?"

"I created you to be the most powerful being to lead the legions of zombies I have also created to take over the world!"

The beast remain silent as if it was processing the information it was given. I could only stand in place as Dr. Cadaver moved passed us to continue talking with his creation.

"I'm the most powerful?"

"Yes, and as your creator, your God! I command you to capture these intruders!"

"…no"

"What?!"

"Who are you to give me orders? Though you have created me, I sense I'm far more powerful than the man who calls himself a god. No…you are weak and I'm far more superior, if anything you should be calling me God."

"You ingrate! I created you! I gave you life and power! This is how you repay your God?!"

"Silence…"

In one swift movement the creature created a ball of fire and threw it straight at Cadaver. The scientist was too slow to realize the incoming threat as the ball of fire blasted him straight in the chest, nearly blowing a hole through the mad doctor.

Lucky and I watched as the doctor fell to his knees as he looked at the open hole in his body, "Th-This isn't right! This shouldn't have happen…" was the doctor's last dying words as he slumped over the floor finally dead.

Suddenly we heard of something busting through metal as we turn to see a large hole in a large metal door far across the room. I looked at Lucky as he gave me a concerned look, "Sis, we have to stop that thing. Who knows what kind of damage it can do on the world?"

"I know Lucky, but we have no idea what that thing is capable of. We saw it can create fire and well…"

Lucky looked at his bandages before looking back at me, "Don't worry about me, I'll try to be careful we just need to focus on stopping that monster."

"Right, let's end this once and for all! For Nacho!"

"For Nacho!"

Gathering our courage we ran outside to face the monster that science created.

/

? P.O.V

(During the Dr. Cadaver conversation)

*Bang, Bang, Bang!*

"Three down…and infinite to go." was all I can say as I shot down a few zombies down only for more to take their place. "Goddammit…" I have seven shots to spare, but at the rate these guys keep coming I might as well giving away these bullets. I need to only kill the ones in my way, so I can make it down the hall or else I'm monster chow.

*Bang, Bang!*

Two more dead and taking advantage of the situation I ran past the two dying cloned corpses as fast as I can. It wasn't easy as my left leg was still stinging a bit from the fall, but I managed. However, I was presented with another problem, "Shit, which way?" Left or right the simplest question with greatest impact on my survival. Going on nothing but instinct I went right hobbling as fast as humanly possible until I made it to the door ahead. I did not waste time opening it and closing it behind me as I stopped to catch my breath, "Five left, and only ten left in reserves. Well there is no way I am going back out there." I said to myself as my breath returned.

However, when I looked up I was immediately face to face with the decayed face of Isabelle, "Wah!" The sight surprised me as I fell back landing hard on my rear end which didn't help with my currently aching body. "Ow…" recovering from the shock I saw that the corpse is inside a large tube along with countless others made up of various villagers including some from my town, "Chow, Kiki, Derwin…I must be getting closer." Honestly, seeing all these cloned corpses is really unnerving as I made my way down the aisle hoping to find the originals. If memory serves me right Isabelle said that there is a section separated from all the rest of these ones.

With this in mind I trudged onward wandering pass through these tubes for a solid minute until I found a large metal door. Using the card key I had on me the large door opened without a hitch and past those doors are more test tubes, but this time the beings inside aren't decayed but in fact the missing villagers including my friends. Whoever is behind of this must be keeping them in this hibernated state in order to keep an unlimited supply of DNA to create all of these zombies. I walked up to the sleeping form of Isabelle. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor girl, for she truly went through a lot in this adventure.

"I'm going to get you all out just wait a little longer." I calmly spoke as I holster my gun.

Looking around I found a large computer and I immediately knew that it controls the zombie production, so maybe it can also free my friends. Walking up to it I saw a whole lot of buttons that I can't really make heads or tails of, but if I had to guess then this yellow button right there will do something positive I'm sure. Pressing it a computer voice responded to my action.

*Production line operational, Zombies DNA stability at adequate level.*

"That was the status button, so maybe this green button?"

*Donors status, all alive.*

"That's good to hear, but not the button I was looking for. Actually, I'm surprised I am actually messing with this without a problem."

*Response, Dr. Cadaver hated logging in everyday despite being the only one in the lab, so he kept me on to keep production going.*

"Okay…uh…is there a way I can turn you off?"

*Response, yes.*

"So how?"

*Response, press the power button. It's covered in a glass casing in case of accidental pressing.*

"Oh that one over there?"

*Response, yes. But, you need a key to open the case.*

"I already have that covered…" Taking out my forget-me-stick I smashed the glass casing protecting the button.

*Question, why did you do that?*

"Because I want my friends back, and I'm shutting this operation down!" was last response to the machine as I pressed the button causing the all the lights on the console to power down.

*Warning! Warning! Shutting down! Stopping all routines! Warning! Warning! All zombie clones will be terminated both new and existing! All donors will be released for safety!*

With that the machine shut down with a low purr. Suddenly I hear the sounds of rushing liquid as I turned around to see the tubes rising up and the bodies of my friends falling down along with the other captured villagers. I looked around and noticed that they are all still breathing which eased the worry at the back of my brain. However, they weren't waking up; perhaps it will be a while before they come out of the hibernated state.

"Maybe that hallway of zombies is finally cleared out." I said to no one in particular until I heard a loud crash. This had me on edge until I realized that the sound originated from the other side of the path I took. "Ankha and Lucky must be over there. And whatever made that noise doesn't sound at all. I need to get to them fast!" I was about to run off, but a small voice stopped me in my tracks.

"M-Mayor?..." the voice said weakly. I know only one person who refers to me by that title; Isabelle.

I quickly walked up to my assistant and kneeled to her level as she slowly woke up, "Isabelle? Are you okay?"

"Mayor…is that really you?" she said weakly.

"It is, but save your strength you're going to need it."

"I-I must be dreaming because the last time I saw you…you fell to your death…" She looked at me with a sadden gaze as she recalled the memory.

"Look I don't believe it either, but I survived it. I don't know how, but I did."

"…" Isabelle took a brief moment of silence as she looked at both me and the floor she laid on. "Can I touch your face?"

I gave her a confused look, "Uh why?"

"I want…to know for sure you're not a figment of my imagination…" she tried to reach for my face, but found that she didn't have enough strength to reach. So I took her hand and help her reach my face. She gently felt my cheek and slowly caressed it, "You are really here…" she said as she stopped touching my cheek.

"Yeah, but right now I need to go Ankha and Lucky need my help."

"Then go…we're not going anywhere…"

"Okay, I'll be back for everyone just rest for now, alright?"

"Alright just…please return to us. Mellow wouldn't be the same without you…"

"Isabelle I don't plan on dying again."

/

Ankha's P.O.V

Lucky and I hurried pass the broken door to face the creature, to our surprise we found ourselves outside with large clouds overhead in a mountainous region. Standing at the end of the balcony staring at the open landscape is The Magician himself. The artificial monster took quick notice of our presence and turned to face us.

"Here to see your new God off?" the monster said as it looked at us. Only now I can see the monster in full detail. The beast was designed after a jackal mixed with some demonic parts, for the most part it kept the head and body of a jackal, but the arms and the legs were completely different with the hands looking like huge three digit claws and the feet ending in two talons.

"I worshipped many gods and goddesses especially one in particular, but you…your no god…" I replied coldly.

"Pity…If you two are going to be a hindrance. Then I'll just kill both of you here and now!" The beast jumped into the air and to our surprise stayed afloat in the empty airspace as he crossed his arms. "Prepare thy selves for divine punishment."

In response to his threat Lucky and I readied our weapons and took a stance. The Magician didn't seem fazed as he quickly started to fly around us faster than our eyes can track, for he was leaving fleeting afterimages in his wake. Before we can even register what's going on two fireballs flew in our direction forcing us to dodge the incoming projectile, but as soon as we dodged them another pair was heading our way. Thinking quickly, I used one of my swords to bat the projectile altering its trajectory and missing me completely.

"How disappointing, few seconds into this and already I have the upper hand. If this is the best you can do then what hope do you have in stopping me?"

"If we don't then who will?" Lucky argued as he dodged another projectile.

"Exactly…" the beast said as it stopped in place to throw another pair of fireballs.

Seeing that small pause quickly gave me an idea. He had to stop in place in order to throw those fireballs. If I can get the timing right I should be able to counter attack him when he stops again. Quickly hanging my swords on my hips I dodged the next projectile, and then I took out my bow and readied an arrow. Waiting for the right opportunity, The Magician once again stopped in his tracks ready to fire off more fireballs, but this time I was ready as I aimed at the head of the creature and released the arrow. It flew fast and true as it hit my intended target; his right eye.

"Grah! Aaah! YOU HARLOT!" The Magician roared in pain as it painfully removed my arrow out of his eye and tossed it to the side, but the damage was already done as I already destroyed his right eye. "HOW DARE YOU! YOU SHALL PAY DEARLY FOR THAT FELINE!"

Suddenly, the monster began moving again, but strangely his afterimages are now red as they used to be glowing blue. He flew around a few times before stopping and rushing at me with flaming fist. My eyes widen as I saw the attack coming, but at the speed he was going I wouldn't have time to dodge. Unfortunately, I didn't have to, "Ankha!" Lucky shouted as suddenly I found myself being pushed out of harm's way only for my faithful friend and brother to receive the blow. Everything seemed to slow down as I watched in horror as the monster's fist punch through Lucky's armor and assumingly his chest, for he was sent flying from the sheer force of the attack crashing into the room we came out of.

"Lucky!" I screamed as I saw his body laid motionless on the ground.

"How gutless…he took the blow that was clearly meant for you, and here I thought suicide was the coward's way out."

That monster…thinks he has the gall to belittle Lucky's sacrifice as a suicide; that was a major mistake, "RRAGH!" I yelled as I dropped my bow and pulled out my swords. I lunged at the monster with both swords, but The Magician quickly blocked my attack with his right arm as he quickly retaliated by punching me in the gut with his free arm sending me flying a foot away from his position.

"Ugh…" I slowly got up and tried to take another stance, but The Magician was already on me as the monster quickly grabbed me by the throat and started squeezing. Immediately, I started panicking as I struggled against his grip.

"Now do you see how pointless it is going against me? Now you're going to die here and no one will care. Because as far as the world knows you'll just be another body I cast to the side on my mission for conquest."

I didn't answer; I couldn't answer as I felt my vision fading as the lack of air is slowly driving me to unconsciousness. Truly, I was going to die here after everything I been through this is how everything ends. Well…at least I'll get to see you again Nacho…

*Bang, Bang, Bang*

Three gun shots rang out and found themselves deflecting off the armor of the monster, but their purpose to gain the monster's attention succeeded, for he let go of my neck and turn his attention to the source of the futile attack.

"Who dares?!"

"I dare you man made freak!" Spoke a voice that made my heart stop.

"*cough* it *cough* couldn't be…" I said quietly as I tried to regain my breath. Turning to the source of the voice, my eyes widen as tears once again threaten to ruin my makeup. "N-Nacho?!"

Nacho's P.O.V.

You know? Under most normal circumstances I would say what I'm doing is suicide, but Ankha was in danger and I had to do something. Is this a bad idea? Yes by all means this was a terrible idea. As I intensely glared at the monster I seemed to remember that I only have two shots left in my gun, and in my current condition reloading the last ten rounds is a pain and a time consuming process. Another thing to add to my list of reasons that this is a bad idea is that this thing is covered in bullet proof armor, so my red 9 isn't going to do squat.

The monster as it walked over to me seem to be sizing me up; most likely judging what little threat I pose to him. As if to confirm my thoughts the creature laughed at my worn appearance, "How pathetic …first two capable fighters stood in my way and now coming to their rescue is a mere human who has one foot in the grave. The only reason I stopped choking the life out of that feline is because what I see before me is the purest form of pitiful."

"Heh, you'll be surprise what a human being can do when backed to a corner."

"Backed into a corner and injured. Normally, I wouldn't even acknowledge your presence for you don't seem to be much of a threat, but I get the feeling that you're going to be a nuisance. So I'll end you here and now"

The monster then charged a fireball in its hand and pointed it at me. I think I can dodge the projectile, but anything else after that is a losing battle. After seeing Lucky, bless that poor soul, I can't picture myself winning this fight…that is until a certain feline interfered at the right moment. Suddenly, two swords hooked themselves to the arms of the monster with the arm pointed at me being now pointed to the ground as the monster in front of me seemed to be struggling.

"What?! How?"

"Don't even dare think of hurting him!" Ankha the exotic Egyptian cat who is now in desperate need of new clothes is now threatening a monster of science. As if to further prove that she is in control of the situation she pulled on the blade with such strength that it was actually pulling the armor off the beast. However, he didn't take the threat well as it resorted to using pure strength to pull away from Ankha's iron grasp, but in doing so the armor she was grabbing onto peeled off the left bicep and the right forearm revealing pulsating muscle tissue that seem to beat with the rhythm of a heart beat.

"Graaah!" The monster roared as it tried quickly to make some distance, but almost immediately Ankha hooked onto his legs nearly stopping him in his tracks, but like before he was barely managing to pull away and as a result Ankha was being lifted into the air. To make matters worse the monster decided to charge a fire ball in his hand in order to get my feline friend off of him. I of course I didn't plan on standing around and let that happen. Thankfully, now that some of the armor is gone I have a place I can shoot the monster, so I quickly aimed at the exposed bicep muscle and shot it.

*Bang, Bang!*

"Agh!" The creature immediately cried out in pain and canceled the attack as it covered the expose muscle tissue as he now used all his strength just to pull away from Ankha which freed him, but at the cost of him losing some armor on his legs, this time his left thigh and right shin are now exposed. Seeing that he is distracted I quickly laid my gun down and took out my last ten rounds I need to exploit this chance to reload and fast.

"Grrrraaaahhh!" I heard the monster roar in both pain and fury. "You…YOU! Destroyed my perfect form!" I didn't need to look to tell that he was yelling at Ankha, for the destruction of his armor. "You and your friend will all die for this!"

"The perfect shell doesn't hide what you're truly are in the inside, a hideous beast." Ankha retorted as I heard her take a stance. "Little N, how much longer do you need?"

"Just a few seconds before I'm fully reloaded. Mind you this is my last ten rounds, so we need to kill this guy asap."

"Okay, just be quick about it." Ankha then lunged off into the fight with renewed strength completely different from the state I found her in earlier, but I suppose seeing somebody you care about deeply return from death can have that effect on people. I can hear her dodging fireballs and melee strikes all the while responding with her own attacks, but as it is now I feel that they are at a stale mate.

Thankfully, I was ready to fight too. My last bullet was place into the chamber and I was locked and loaded. I got off the floor and turn to see that the two are battling it out on the balcony. With gun in hand I ran to join my friend dodging stray fireballs along the way. Making it to the center of the battle I saw that both combatants are worse for wear as Ankha's bandages are damaged and slowly coming undone while the monster she was fighting was nursing some of the slash marks done to his exposed flesh.

"Mind if I join this game late?"

"Not at all…" Ankha said as she trying to catch her breath.

"Foolish human, you are not fit to fight me!"

"Oh yeah? I taken on monsters way bigger than you are and I didn't even need a gun."

"Interesting bluff, but I'm no monster I'm a god!"

"No you're just another experiment that needs to die."

With that the monster quickly flew around the air much to my surprise. It was going so fast it was leaving afterimages, but what confused me is that they are colored or in this case red.

"Nacho, look out! He's going to punch you!" Ankha warned me as I instinctively rolled to right just barely avoiding a burning fist. Seeing that he is now wide open I fired three shots into the exposed muscle tissue causing the monster recoil back from the pain and again started flying erratically around us this time with a blue afterimage.

The monster stopped a couple feet away from us and threw not two fireballs, but five forcing me to get low to the ground to avoid them, but Ankha had other plans. Taking a batting stance Ankha lined up one of her swords and swung it as if it were a baseball bat swatting two of the five fireballs back to the monster forcing him to block the burning projectiles. Ankha saw her opening and quickly ran up to the creature and went to cut the exposed forearm, but the monster quickly blocked her first sword strike, however, the feline wasn't done, for she quickly swung her other sword and cut off the arm that blocked her first strike.

"M-My arm!" The creature shouted in utter shock, "H-How? How, how, how can you have that much power still in reserves?!" he asked Ankha.

"I call it motivation…it's something that you can never understand."

"Wh-What?! Grrrr…raghhhh!" now it was enraged. I think the simple 'mortal' concepts of drive and motivation is not in this things brain. "Then I'll destroy your motivation!"

Uh oh…he's eying me now. He must have put two and two together already, for the moment I blinked he was already in front of me. I was about to point my gun at his exposed muscle, but in a quick motion his remaining arm lashed out and grabbed my broken arm.

"Aaahhh!" I yelled in excruciating pain as the monster proceeded to push me down with his left foot pinning me to the ground.

"Let him go!" I heard Ankha yell as I struggled to breath under the pressure that the monster was exerting on my chest.

"Auh, auh, auh…one more step he dies."

If I wasn't in so much pain right now I swear I could have heard Ankha giving off a low growl at the monster. Which again, I would have found amusing if it weren't the great pain I was in. Thankfully that, creature didn't have another arm to work with, so my right arm is still free and clutching my gun. The only problem is that I have to shoot his exposed thigh and what makes it a problem is the awkward angle I'll have to work with. Forcing myself through the pain I slowly aimed my gun at his exposed thigh and fired five shots into it causing him to let go of my broken arm and get off of my body. I coughed a bit as Ankha rushed to my side and help me slowly get back up just in time to see the monster flying up to air with rage written on its face.

"I had ENOUGH! You have ruined my godly image, severed one of my arms, and overall I am simply appalled that I wasted this much time just to kill you both. So damn it all!" The monster raised his remaining arm into the air as a fire ball began to form, but instead of throwing it he kept it in his palm as it grew in size. Ankha and I watch in horror as the fire ball grew large enough to engulf this balcony in a bright light. "This is it! I put all my energy into this fireball and now you're all going to die!"

In response I pointed my gun at him, but he merely laughed, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Creating this great ball of fire has been difficult with one arm, so as a result it's very volatile. One wrong move and we all get engulfed in a fiery explosion!"

"Shit…" I muttered under my breath as I dropped my aim.

"Nacho…" I heard Ankha whispered to my ear. It had a soft tone to it even comforting.

"Ankha?" I whispered quietly wondering why she called my name, but when I looked at her face I saw determination in her eyes.

"We still have one trick left…give me your gun." Doing as she said I handed to her my red 9. When she took it she quickly took it and started chanting in a language I never heard before, the only thing I could get out of the chanting was two names; Bastet and Ra. Suddenly, my gun was strike by a beam of light engulfing it in its brightness turning it gold.

"What the…" I said to myself until suddenly Ankha fell to her knees for she seemed to be exhausted from the experience. Maybe that chanting took a lot out of her.

"Ankha! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine…just tired, but Nacho…your gun is now been gifted by Ra's power. However…you only have one shot…" she said as she finally passed out on the floor.

I looked at her and back to my gun, "One shot eh? I only had one left to begin with." Taking aim I once again aimed at the creature this time aiming at its body.

"You fool! Haven't you been listening? If you shoot then you'll all die anyway!"

"Ah…shut up" is all I said as I pulled the trigger. The gun glowed for a moment before releasing a large concentrated beam of pure light. The force blew me back a little, but I managed to hold on strong as the beam engulfed the creature and to my surprise absorbing the large fireball it was creating.

"Wahhh! What is this!" the monster yelled as his voice was almost drowned out by the large beam.

"I don't know, but if I had to guess, a gift from a true god!" I didn't hear a response as everything turned bright white. Eventually the light faded, and the monster was no more. I looked on as I saw the beam itself seemed to have part the sky. Looking back to my gun I noticed that it was smoking heavily from the barrel; I gave it a small blow of air before holstering it. Suddenly, I felt my strength leave me. I guess I was running on pure adrenaline at this point. I slowly eased myself into a sitting position next to Ankha as she took a nap from whatever magic she did to my gun. "You know? A nap sounds good right about now…" Seeing no better place to lie down other than next to my feline friend I did what my brain told me and laid next to her. I slowly closed my eyes and drifted off to the world of sleep, but as I was about to have a date with the sandman I could have swore I felt something grab onto me and hugged me tightly.


	11. Epilogue

Epilogue: Looking Ahead

Author notes:

Finally here's the end of this story. It's been a good run, but this is where it ends for now. I will probably make more adventures for our mayor to do, but for now he needs to rest. I hope you all enjoyed this story and since this is the end don't forget to leave a review. Also in addition to that what do you think of this story? What do you think about the characters? I would love to hear what you people have to say. But for now this is TheFoolOfTheNoon signing off!

/

Nacho's P.O.V

I didn't know how long I was out, but when I opened my eyes I immediately found myself in a familiar environment; I was back in my own home in my bed in the Town of Mellow. This thrown me off since that last thing I remember I was at the mansion out cold with something holding onto to me…As a matter of fact besides the feeling of soreness around my body I still felt something or someone holding onto to me in my bed. A soft purr filled my ears as I moved the cover sheet to reveal Ankha now only dressed in her black underwear with a few bandages placed around her body.

The sight made me blush fiercely as I never would have expected to see her like this. She seemed to have nestle herself between my broken arm and my body, it would seem she done it carefully in order to avoid causing me discomfort. Despite the fact I have my best friend in her underwear in my bed, I didn't freak out…maybe because she looked so content and happy. Seeing her like this reminded me of my feelings for her. I couldn't help but give a warm smile as she continues to sleep peacefully. I wasn't sure how long I was staring at her, but eventually my neck was starting to strain, so I had to look away in order to ease it and for once I found myself staring at the ceiling as I used my remaining good arm to return the cover back into position as I laid there thinking about my relationship with the exotic feline.

"I'll think I will wait for her to wake up first." I said to myself quietly. I think now is the time to tell her how I feel about her since I nearly died in that mission and seeing firsthand how she reacted when it is revealed I was still alive I'm confident she feels the same way. This has been one heck of an adventure and ultimately brought not just us closer, but every town who was affected by this crisis.

Slowly with my working right hand I stroked her hair gently all the while taking in the feeling of it; it felt like silk and felt great as each strand passed between my fingers. But it would seem my actions would have an interesting consequence, for Ankha gave a contented sigh and nestle even deeper into my body. Her purrs intensified as I continued to stroke her hair eventually reaching to her ear curious to see what kind of reaction it would get out of her I scratched her ear. My result…

"M-Myah…"

Oh my god that is adorable…no doubt she will straight up deny this if I tell her she made that noise when she wakes up. Sadly, I don't have a recorder on standby for this, but I guess all I can do is enjoy this.

"Ankha…"

"Yes Little N? Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Wha!" I jumped a little in surprise as Ankha opened her eyes and gave me small warm smile. "How long were you awake?"

"Longer than you were." She said as she snuggled her head deeper into my chest.

"…A-Ankha what are you doing?"

"Isn't it obivious? I'm cuddling you."

"B-But why?"

"Because I love you." She just said it and the way she said it threw me off. However, she wasn't done yet, for she adjusted herself on the bed moving away from her snuggling spot and placing herself on top of me.

"An-Ankha?!" I know I love this feline, but everything is moving too fast for comfort. The fact she was half naked didn't help either.

"Oh relax I just wanted to be in a more comfortable position besides, if I wasn't in this position then I wouldn't be able to do this!" Once again she caught me off guard because before I knew it her lips met mine and despite the earlier uneasiness I had before I soon found myself enjoying the kiss, but such simple pleasure was taken from too soon as Ankha broke it and gazed into my eyes. "How was that?"

"Breathtaking…"

"I thought so…" she said with a seductive smile.

"Ankha?"

"Yes?"

It was my turn to catch her off guard, as she did to me I returned the kiss and I could feel the shock vibrate through her as she quickly returned the kiss fiercely. I wasn't sure how long we were at it, but it was more intense than the kiss she started, for this time I released all my kept in emotions at once and she did the same; I could feel our tongues touch in the middle of it all. Eventually we both needed air, so we both reluctantly broke the kiss so we can refill our lungs.

"I love you too." I said finally after regaining some precious oxygen.

Hearing this from me Ankha gave me a warm smile as tears began to break out from her eyes again somewhat ruining her makeup, but she didn't care because before I knew it she buried herself into my chest and hugged me tightly much to my slight discomfort due to my injuries. After a minute of crying she looked up at me with dried up tears and warped makeup, "I thought I will never get this chance…"

What she said confused me, "What?"

"I thought…I lost you before I could tell you my feelings…when you fell off that bridge I truly thought you have died and I'll never see you again." She pressed her body against mines as she position herself to be face to face with me, "Nacho, you have no idea how much you mean to me. To be honest I tried to bury my feelings in the past, but ever since that day you stop me from leaving town my feelings only grew stronger. However, I didn't know if you felt the same, but I promised myself and Lucky that I will confess to you my own way."

That would explain the casual 'I love you' from her that started the make out session, "So you chose to act first despite the risk I might have rejected you here and now?"

"I'll admit it was incredibility foolish and I opened myself to heartbreak, but that doesn't matter now since you've returned my feelings."

"Yeah, I fell in love with you when I started to get to know you during our times as friends. Although, I have to admit your looks was the lure and the person behind the line is the hook. However, I have to ask, how are we going to break it to everyone else that we're dating now?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, Little N. For now I just want to enjoy this moment a little bit longer." She said as she gave me a quick peck on the lips and then proceeds to lay her head on my chest.

"Me too…" I rested my head on my pillow as I wrapped my right arm around her keeping her close, for I do not want to let her go.

Ankha's P.O.V

I finally did it and thank the gods he feels the same the same way and this feeling, pure bliss…this is what I'm feeling as I continued to lay in the embrace of the man I love. I really have to thank Lucky for giving me the courage to tell him, but there still some things I need to tell him. I'm still scared of telling him, but I have to sooner or later and I rather tell him while he is still young. However, I don't want to sour the mood, so for right now it'll wait. Finding comfort in his only arm made me purr slightly as we were both lost in each other's embrace.

I honestly don't know how long we stayed like that, but it almost felt like an hour until eventually someone had to end this tender moment. With my ear I quickly heard someone climbing the steps of the basement to the ground floor. I gave an irritated sigh which caught the attention of my love.

"Is something wrong Ankha?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah, we have company."

Just on time Dingo, a fellow agent and friend to Nacho, made it to the top of the steps and stopped in place causing both of us to look at him with annoyed glares.

"I er…wasn't interrupting anything was I?" He asked nervously.

"Too late for that…what do you want?" Nacho said clearly as annoyed as I am.

"I just came to check on you two see if you are both awake. When you freed us Ohkan from stasis we had to recover and regain our senses, but when we did and decided to join you for the final fight all we found was Lucky who is somehow is still alive despite the serious burn in his abdomen and you two passed out on the floor. Eagle and I had to study the area just figure out what happened in there, but we couldn't figure it out. So we picked you both up and along with the other kidnapped villagers made our way to the village."

"What happened to all the villagers?" Nacho asked.

"I'll get to that later, but back to the story we needed at least three people to carry the both of you since that grabby feline wouldn't let go." He pointed to me which I responded by sticking out my tongue at him. "Blah, blah, blah…I was hoping you two will wake up since we need to file a report to home base, so you two get dressed and meet with me in the basement I feel like I drawn this out long enough already." Dingo saying what he needed to say left the ground floor and returned to the basement leaving Nacho and I alone once again.

We looked back to each other, and I gave a frustrated sigh as I got off of Nacho and the bed. The moment was gone and he knew that, for he got off as well. It wasn't until we both got out of bed is until I realized that I have no clothes to wear and cover my undergarments.

"Uh, Little N you don't happen to have any over sized shirts I can wear in order to be somewhat decent, do you?"

"Hold on." He answered back as he ran into his closet and started digging through it. After a short few seconds he came out with a Raglan shirt. Though it was basic for my taste I'm not in the complaining mood. "Here put this on. This shirt never really fit me, and I don't think I'll grow into either, so it should cover you up nicely."

Taking the shirt in hand I gave him my thanks as I put on the shirt. The fragment of a complete outfit barely passed my hips, but it was enough for now. If I had to make a comparison this shirt reminded me of a short skirted dress. Looking back to my new love he decided to go with the chain-gang shirt that Marshal gave him some time in the past. "Ready love?" I asked as I walked up to him and took his right hand into mine.

"Yeah the sooner the better." He said as we both walk down the stairs together.

It wasn't long until we reached the bottom and much to Nacho's surprise and my amusement Lucky was the first person he saw.

"Lucky?! But…how?" he said in shock, but I quickly squeezed his hand reminding him that I'm still here.

"Surprised?" Dingo said with a smile, "I know we were."

Eagle was nearby giving 'I don't know' expression, "Yes…well we and everyone else who saw him walking was stupefied to see that he was still alive despite the nasty burn he took."

In the middle of the conversation I looked over to Lucky who in turn gave me a nervous look telling me that he doesn't know whether to tell them or not, so I decided to answer for him.

"I actually have an explanation for that, which is, if you're willing to believe me…" I felt everyone in the room look at me dumbfounded, but I decided to continue regardless, "You see Lucky...isn't alive or rather one hundred percent alive as you think. He's a mummy brought to life in order to serve me and my family, so he can't die through normal means."

The room grew quiet as Dingo and Eagle looked at me like some kind of nut, but Nacho his gaze matched his friends, but they quickly changed to understanding.

"You're right Ankha, we're having a hard time believing you" Dingo said as he scratched his head.

"Indeed…" Eagle added.

"But…it makes sense." Nacho said with a look of realization. "I saw the damage myself, there is now way a normal person could be hurt that bad and still be alive. If anything, what Ankha said makes the only amount of sense than anything we could think of."

His friends look at each and shrugged, "You know what, considering what we just went through I'll have to agree." Dingo said

"Same here, as impossible that sounds" Eagle added.

I gave a sigh of relief, for that was far easier than I thought it was, but my heart stopped when Nacho started to connect the dots.

"But if he was brought back to life, then Ankha do your parents know necromancy?"

I guess it can be called that, but that's not what I thought he figured out. Whew…I still have the chance to tell him on my own terms.

"Well, we did just completely obliterate a monster of science with a concentrated beam of solar light, so what do you think?"

"I think my girlfriend has magical powers she never told me about."

"Trust me Little N, there is a lot we need to talk about together." I smiled as Nacho was about to respond until a couple of beeping noise fired off telling us that we have incoming transmission.

My boyfriend gave a sigh as he knew what was coming next and much to his dismay a familiar gruff face appeared on the giant screen of the room. The man gave a salute before talking, "Agents! I have received word that the zombie attacks have ceased, so I believe that you were responsible for this?"

"Indeed Sir" Nacho said without delay.

"Then give me a full report!"

Nacho's P.O.V

I mentally sighed, but I started anyway. I first told him about how we first descended into the village and fended off a zombie attack, and with the help of a local we were able to find the mansion and storm it for less of a better word. Once inside we faced the maze like interior of the mansion facing many horrors until we made it to the lab portion of the mansion. It was at this point my friends, and even Ankha and Lucky jumped in order to fill in blanks I couldn't fill myself. It was a long taxing process, but we managed to get to the part where Ankha and I fought the scientist's monstrous experiment and ultimately destroyed it.

Mr. Jarhead nodded to this, "I see, that would explain the sudden parting of clouds in that region, but that's beside the point. Tell me, what is the status of agent Hermit and Frog?"

I slightly bit my lip, but I continued on anyway, "Hermit is still alive though he is still recovering from the incident. However, I regret to say that Frog is K.I.A. I found his body in a chute in the lab." Everyone in the room, save for Jarhead and I gasped in shock. It would seem I'm the only one that stumbled upon his corpse in the chute.

"Did you retrieve the body?" Jarhead asked.

Considering this is news to everyone else in the room; I don't think so, "No, before I could tell anyone of his location I passed out from the fight with the creature, so unfortunately his body should still be there."

"I see…I'll send a retrieval team to pick up his body, so his family can have him buried. Other than that I congratulate you on your mission success. I'll let the higher ups know that you'll be off-duty for a while in order to recover from your injuries. But, there is still the situation with civilians knowing of your duties."

"Don't worry about it. The only people who know about me being an agent was the people you saw before and I know them personally. They would never blab any of this to the rest of the public that I can guarantee you."

Jarhead is usually a yelling and angry man, but to see him stop and think actually surprised me. It took a short moment for him to finally come to an answer, "I don't like it…but I'll have to trust you on this Ohkan. Knowing you, you would automatically reject to us having them mind wiped anyway, so don't make me regret putting faith on you."

"You have my thanks sir!" and then some…

"Alright, Eagle, Dingo! Return to HQ ASAP!"

"Yes sir!" they both said obediently.

When that was all said and done the screen quickly flashed to black signaling that the call is over. I gave a deep sigh of relief now that the conversation is over. I looked back to my friends who looked like they used to have a few questions for me, but they were already answered. Eagle and Dingo decided to take their leave as they both flashed me a congratulatory smile. My bird named friend was the first to ascend the steps while Dingo stopped next to me.

"As for the villagers you saved, you should look outside." He gave a wink as he followed after Eagle.

"Wait…are they all?" I asked myself as I turned to Ankha whom is currently conversing with Lucky. They both noticed me looking at them; both of them flash me a smile as they both walked up to me. "So…Lucky you're a mummy…that's neat…"

"Sort of…but people tend to freak out when they find out your blood is nothing, but sand and dust."

"Yeah I can see that happening, so let's keep this as secret from everyone else alright?"

"I been doing it this long I can keep it up even longer."

I gave him a nod and then I looked over to Ankha, "So do you want to join me in meeting all these villagers that Dingo was talking about?" I asked her, but she quickly shook her head.

"Like this?! Heavens no! As much as I love you I don't think I could go out in public looking like this!"

I should have expected this, but I supposed there no changing that about her, "Well if you want then you can stay inside and fix your image up."

"Thanks, but what about you? Surely, you'll want to greet everybody you saved."

"I can wait I think it's best if all of us came out together."

"If you say so, but I'll need to use the basement, so if you don't mind…"

"Oh right!" I wanted to respect her privacy even despite the fact I already saw her in her underwear. I thought over this as I ascended the steps and made my way to the ground floor. I already knew that Ankha will need to fix her make-up so that's one thing, but if I had to guess she is going to change her clothes again, but how? Then again…she wears a 'shirt' made out of bandages, so I guess Lucky must be her personal supplier or something. I waited on the couch for a few minutes and before I knew it two pair of footsteps made their way upstairs belonging to none other Lucky and Ankha who was now wearing her signature mummy 'shirt' once again. I took a quick look at her face and saw that she reapplied her make-up. The lovely feline was carrying the shirt I lend to her over her shoulder like a wet towel.

"Okay now I'm ready." She said simply as she gave the shirt to Lucky, "Lucky hold this for me. I want to keep it for…personal reasons."

I smiled when she said that, "Well now that we are all ready to go. Let's go meet everyone shall we?" I said happily as I offered my right hand to Ankha.

"Let's" she took my hand into hers and kissed me on the cheek. We both turned to face the door that Lucky thankfully opened for us.

As we walked out into the light we were faced with a huge crowd of villagers of various species with only a few I recognize that live in my town. When they saw me, Ankha and Lucky they cheered loudly all the while waving at us. We heard popping noises from various party poppers as confetti rained all around us. I gave the crowd the best smile I could muster up in order to compensate for the fact I don't have an arm to wave with at the moment. I looked over to Ankha who was waving back to the crowd with a smile of her own with Lucky doing the same.

The crowd seemed to surround us leaving only a single path to follow. It's obvious that they are leading us somewhere, but where? My answer came quickly as I saw the plaza and the tree I planted when I first became mayor. There was a huge setup with benches, food, booths and etc. Everyone was having a great time and it brought me joy to see this despite the fiasco that happened recently.

"Hey Mayor!" I looked in the direction of the call and I see a familiar bushy white tail belonging to none other than Marshal himself. Following him is Kiki, Derwin, and Chow all of them very happy to see me.

I never thought I could have felt even happier, but to see my friends again really pushed the margin a bit. They greeted me ecstatically with Kiki giving me a quick hug, Derwin patting me on the back, and Chow giving me a playful noogie. All three of us talked to the group with me leading by expressing my relief at they're safety. However, the first thing they noticed is that Ankha and I are holding hands. This lead to us explaining that we are in a relationship now it was a bit awkward, but at least we told a few of our friends already.

However, before we could further our conversation we heard someone tapping on a mic, "Excuse me…is this thing on?"

" _Clearly it was or else everyone wouldn't hear you…"_ I thought sarcastically as I turn to face the owner of the voice. But, I soften my emotions when I saw that it was Isabelle standing on a small podium with a microphone in hand.

"Hello, and thank you all for coming! I hope you're enjoying the festivities, but I will like to make an announcement." I can tell she is nervous, but she continues onward bravely, "There is a man in this crowd that changed this town forever making it the most popular spot for visitors and travelers alike. This great man is the mayor of our great little town and I'm glad to have worked for such a wonderful person. Because yesterday, our mayor went above and beyond the call of duty and risked his life to save not just our town, but the whole world! So please put your hands together for our selfless mayor, Nacho!" she finished as she pointed at me with an open paw.

I looked at Ankha who gave me a smile, "Go on, it's your moment" I nodded in response and released my hand from hers. I honestly wanted to stay with Ankha a bit longer, but the public need me. I walked up to the podium and with Isabelle's okay I took the stand as I felt many pairs of eyes look upon me with intrigue.

I cleared my throat, "Everyone! I'm glad I could see all of your smiling and happy faces because that's what I fought for yesterday. As we all recall, zombie clones of people we know started attacking various towns, but when I was away on business I saw on the news that my town was attacked by these creatures. When that happened, I put my foot down. Nobody messes with my town and gets away with it, so I cut my travels short and raced back to town. When I saw what happened to my town I knew what needed to be done. So with the help of Ankha, Lucky, Harriet, Copper, and two of my human friends we made it to the source of the problem and fought our way to end it once and for all. I won't lie I nearly died in this mission, but I survived because I knew I had to fight on for my friends and loved ones. This is my duty as mayor, preserving the happiness and safety of all of those close to me and too me everyone who lives in my town is like family to me and I wouldn't have it any other way."

Cheers begin to roar from the crowd as I finished my rather crudely put together speech. Hey, what can I say? My speeches usually only have a few words in it, so this was a new record in my book. With my one good arm I waved to the crowd, as of now they are seeing the face of the masked mayor for the first time and I don't mind. As of now my future seems bright, I confessed to the girl I love and I saved the world from a terrible menace, and best of all I finally able to get a break from work. Sure this won't last, but I will enjoy every minute until then.

Breathing deeply I looked up to the sky now clear and blue as the ocean itself, the cheers of the crowd never wavering as one phrase stuck with me, "Thank you…"

/

Normal P.O.V.

Back at the mansion two figures were walking around the battle ground where the last battle took place.

"Nothing but a failure…" spoke a deep voice as it walked around.

"It would seem so…" said another voice following behind the first.

"I told him that he should keep the project on a low profile, but of course fools will be fools."

"As a result we lost our army…"

"No matter, we'll find other ways."

"How so?"

"A little magic can go a long way you know? So let's take that route…"

"I see…"

"However, there is a more pressing matter we should be attending to."

The owner of the second voice paused before responding, "Uh…which is?"

"'Her' whereabouts. The kind doctor claimed to have found her in his mansion, but as we can clearly see she isn't…how disappointing."

"So we're still at square one then, sire?"

"As of now yes. She continues to elude me, but at least the doctor gave us a trail to work with instead of having us walking completely blind."

"I guess, but why are you so obsessed over her anyway?"

"Because, she was destined to be mine. It always has been, but she refuses to accept destiny. But it matters not, once I find her she will see it my way and this time nothing will get in my way. Not Bladeius, and not even Ohkan! I left her with nobody else to love and if she does love another they will suffer the same fate."

The second voice whistles, "Yeah…whatever…" as the two walked around they both heard a faint groan. Crawling out in pain was the mayor of Kikowood who was obviously used in the experiments.

"Y-You two! Please h-help me!"

The owner of the first voice looked at the worthless scum of a human with distain, "What for?" he said with annoyance.

"L-Look fella I'm a mayor, and just so you know I could make you rich! Give you women, anything! All I need you to do is help me out!"

"Okay then…" he phased out an Egyptian styled scepter and pointed it at the miserable man.

"Wh-Whoa wait! What are you doing?!"

"I'm helping…" The scepter charged with purple energy, "…putting you out of your misery" The scepter fired the energy blasting the man painfully as he squirmed in pain and screamed in agony until finally the screaming stopped. The man stopped firing the energy and looked at his handy work; nothing but a charred corpse remained.

"Heh, he probably deserved it."

"Indeed, now let's take our leave…there is nothing we can salvage here." The man created a portal with his scepter and step through it.

"It's a shame really…all those false promises we made all for nothing." With this said the second man walked through the portal causing it to disappear with him leaving the room in dead silence.


End file.
